Underdog e-retailers make the sweet-performing 16 in Gomez tournament
Some of the online retailing giants are out while smaller competitors like REI and FreshDirect are among the 16 e-retailers still in contention in the “merchant madness” web site performance tournament being conducted by Gomez Inc.
Gomez came up with the idea this year of comparing e-retailing sites head to head in terms of availability, response time and consistency during the holiday shopping period. The web site performance measurement company started with the 64 top online retailers by revenue as listed in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide. Two rounds of the tournament have narrowed the field to 16.
“For online retailers, this is make or break time,” says Matt Poepsel, vice president of performance strategies at Gomez. “Today’s online shoppers have high expectations and limited patience or loyalty. With a competitor’s web site and a more pleasing shopping experience just a click away, the stakes have never been higher to get it right this year.”
Among the notable winners in the latest round—based on tests of site performance conducted from Nov. 5 to 11—was REI, No. 61 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, which knocked off Home Depot, No. 37. REI pulled off a shocker in the first round by eliminating No. 2 online retailer Staples. The biggest first-round upset was ShopNBC, No. 64, upending online retailing champ Amazon.com. But ShopNBC’s title hopes came to an end in the second round when it was eliminated by Overstock.com, No. 25.
Other underdogs making it to the Sweet Sixteen round include FreshDirect, No. 57, which tied with 1800Flowers, No. 34, but was awarded the win based on better first-round results. Spiegel, No. 53, knocked off No. 27 Gap, while Blockbuster, No. 51, eliminated Best Buy, No. 11.
Gomez will crown the winner Nov. 26.
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