Quixtar tops in April site performance

Retailers need to be consistent in their site performance across all access points, including high broadband, low broadband and dial-up.

In April the Top 50 retailer delivering the highest efficiency rating was Quixtar, which enabled shoppers to access online content at about 41.99 information bytes per second, according to Gomez Inc.

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Quixtar was followed by Dell (31.61 bps), Zappos (31.01 bps), Netflix (28.65 bps), Amazon.com (21.49 bps), Target (20.71 bps), Redcats (20.00 bps) and Toys “R” Us (17.85 bps).

Measuring how many bytes per second shoppers can download using multiple connections is a key indicator of web site performance and customer satisfaction. Overall, shoppers could access sites at an average of about 8.9 bytes per second on the 50 largest retail sites in April according to Gomez.

Top 50 Performance Index: Optimization March 1, 2006 - April 1, 2006 Efficiency Rating Rank Site (bytes/ second) 1 Quixtar 41.99 2 Dell 31.61 3 Zappos 31.01 4 Netflix 28.65 5 Amazon.com 21.49 6 Target 20.71 7 Redcats 20 8 Toys R Us 17.85 9 QVC.com 17.62 10 Barnes and Noble 17.47 11 Sony Style 16.15 12 Musicians Friend 15.27 13 GAP 12.51 14 Scholastic 12.08 15 Staples 11.86 16 Nordstrom 11.76 17 LL Bean 11.37 18 Cabelas 9.74 19 Apple 9.44 Average 8.9 20 Williams Sonoma 8.34 21 HP Direct 7.35 22 Avon 6 23 Eddie Bauer 5.9 24 Office Max 5.24 25 Comp USA 5.23 26 Coldwater Creek 5.12 27 HSN 4.37 28 Home Depot 4.09 29 Sears 3.99 30 JC Penney 3.5 31 Wal-mart 3.09 32 Blue Nile 2.84 33 Office Depot 2.8 34 Circuit City 2.79 35 Costco 1.91 36 Cornerstone Brands 1.84 37 Neiman Marcus 1.84 38 Tiger Direct 1.53 39 Drugstore.com 1.43 40 Gateway 1.28 41 PC Mall 1.26 42 Newegg 1.03 43 Peapod 1.02 44 Best Buy .85 45 Buy.com .59 46 Overstock.com .59 47 1800 Flowers .37 48 CDW .36 49 FTD .14 50 Kmart .11 Quality Rating Rank Site (seconds) 1 Blue Nile 3.48 2 Dell 5.08 3 Peapod 5.51 4 Zappos 6.26 5 Apple 6.36 6 FTD 6.68 7 Office Max 6.73 8 Scholastic 7.27 9 Nordstrom 7.34 10 Gateway 8.27 11 Staples 8.42 12 Neiman Marcus 8.75 13 QVC.com 9.04 14 PC Mall 9.13 15 HP Direct 9.18 16 JC Penney 9.68 17 Cornerstone Brands 9.76 18 Avon 9.84 19 CDW 10.12 20 Circuit City 10.51 21 Amazon.com 10.64 22 Eddie Bauer 10.75 23 Cabelas 10.78 24 Coldwater Creek 11.45 25 Tiger Direct 11.52 26 Newegg 11.8 27 Drugstore.com 11.99 28 Home Depot 12.67 29 Kmart 12.86 30 Buy.com 13 31 Costco 13.12 32 1800 Flowers 13.12 33 Toys R Us 13.51 Average 13.66 34 Office Depot 14.5 35 Redcats 15.16 36 Williams Sonoma 15.72 37 Best Buy 16.15 38 Netflix 16.66 39 Sears 16.75 40 Overstock.com 17.2 41 GAP 17.67 42 HSN 18.02 43 Quixtar 20.09 44 Barnes and Noble 21.81 45 Wal-mart 24.96 46 LL Bean 25.52 47 Comp USA 25.92 48 Musicians Friend 28.54 49 Target 32.87 50 Sony Style 41.96 Copyright © 2006 Gomez, Inc.                                       www.gomez.com Efficiency is a measure of how quickly an E-Retailer can deliver content across multiple connection speeds (Dial Up, Low Broadband, and High Broadband) to consumers. Quality is a measure in seconds of long a consumer can expect it to take for a Homepage to load regardless of connection speed (Dial Up, Low Broadband, and High Broadband).