Big retailers get top grades for their site performance

Many of the web’s top 50 retail sites are receiving top marks for delivering web shoppers a consistent user experience in April.

IRCE 2008 Conference Multi-Media CD-ROM

In April Gomez Inc. compared the web’s 50 largest retailers on consistency and variability and assigned each retailer a specific rating. Among the retailers receiving a rating of “excellent” were: Peapod, Zappos, Scholastic, OfficeMax, Apple, Dell, Avon, Blue Nile, Amazon.com, Drugstore.com, QVC, Cabela’s, J.C. Penney, Office Depot, Nordstrom, Coldwater Creek, Sears, Eddie Bauer, Toys “R” Us, Home Shopping Network, Wal-Mart and Redcats.

The consistency ratings take into account differences in the speed of web page delivery across multiple visits and the frequency a retail site is unavailable because of down time. The variability of response time and the number of minutes out are combined to create each retailer’s consistency rating, Gomez says.

The variability of response time is key and the amount of time a site is accessible is crucial to achieving a top ranking, Gomez says. Among the retailers receiving a rating of “good” for their performance in April were: CompUSA, Barnes and Noble, Quixtar, Musician’s Friend, L.L. Bean, Gateway, Netflix, Hewlett-Packard, FTD, Neiman Marcus, Circuit City, Cornerstone Brands, CDW, Staples, Kmart, 1800Flowers.com, PC Mall, Costco and Overstock.

Top 50 Web Site Consistency Benchmark April 1, 2006 - May 1, 2006 Retailer Consistency Rating Variability (Seconds) # of Errors Peapod Excellent 13.75 96 Zappos Excellent 12.80 120 Scholastic Excellent 15.76 136 Office Max Excellent 17.05 138 Apple Excellent 19.07 156 Dell Excellent 12.66 165 Avon Excellent 18.51 167 Blue Nile Excellent 17.51 177 Amazon.com Excellent 21.28 174 Drugstore.com Excellent 17.82 220 QVC.com Excellent 20.81 221 Cabelas Excellent 20.06 226 JC Penney Excellent 20.70 228 Office Depot Excellent 19.89 231 Nordstrom Excellent 20.08 236 Coldwater Creek Excellent 16.53 243 Sears Excellent 22.78 259 Eddie Bauer Excellent 20.19 273 Williams Sonoma Excellent 20.32 291 Toys R Us Excellent 21.28 291 Home Shopping Network Excellent 20.90 295 Wal-Mart Excellent 22.64 297 Redcats Excellent 23.16 297 Comp USA Good 24.38 325 Barnes and Noble Good 21.91 330 Quixtar Good 20.23 332 Musicians Friend Good 24.28 335 LL Bean Good 21.76 345 Gateway Good 20.81 350 Netflix Good 16.87 355 HP Direct Good 23.04 407 FTD Good 14.35 417 Neiman Marcus Good 21.90 413 Benchmark Average 21.79 413 Circuit City Good 22.50 426 Cornerstone Brands Good 24.27 441 CDW Good 21.65 468 Staples Good 19.49 472 Kmart Good 25.67 479 1800 Flowers Good 24.64 485 PC Mall Good 24.80 519 Costco Good 23.23 592 Overstock.com Good 25.86 618 Tiger Direct Fair 28.77 633 Buy.com Fair 27.84 643 Home Depot Fair 27.24 691 Best Buy Fair 26.80 901 Sony Style Fair 30.47 965 Newegg Fair 29.42 1164 GAP Fair 31.26 1175 Target Fair 30.27 1452 Copyright © 2006 Gomez, Inc.                                       www.gomez.com Consistency = A qualitative representation of consistency ratings that are created with the lowest total score (Variability + Errors) being normalized to 100. Above 98 = Excellent, above 95 = Good, above 85 = Fair, and below 85 = Poor. Variability = The range between the high and low values of one standard deviation from response time. # of Errors = Test failures or timeouts caused by site unavailability.