Zappos delivers top site efficiency

As if they were in the Twilight Zone, web retailers must think of how their e-commerce sites perform in different dimensions. For example, retailers need to be consistent in their site performance across all access points, including high broadband, low broadband and dial-up.

In March the Top 50 retailer delivering the highest efficiency rating was Zappos, which enabled shoppers to access online content at about 36.92 information bytes per second, according to Gomez Inc.

Zappos was followed by Quixtar (27.77 bps), Netflix (26.31 bps), Barnes and Noble (23.02 bps), Amazon.com (20.49 bps), Dell (19.27 bps), QVC (17.86 bps) and Sony (16.92 bps).

Top 500 Guide

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 8.16 bytes per second on the 50 largest retail sites in March, according to Gomez.

Top 50 Performance Index: Optimization March 1, 2006 - April 1, 2006 Efficiency Rating Rank Site (bytes/ second) 1 Zappos 36.92   2 Quixtar 27.77   3 Netflix 26.31   4 Barnes and Noble 23.02   5 Amazon.com 20.49   6 Dell 19.37   7 QVC.com 17.86   8 Sony Style 16.92   9 Toys R Us 15.06   10 Target 14.72   11 Staples 13.22   12 GAP 12.67   13 Musicians Friend 12.14   14 Apple 11.47   15 Scholastic 11.17   16 Cabelas 9.14   17 Nordstrom 8.60     Average 8.16   18 HP Direct 8.08   19 Williams Sonoma 7.32   20 Blue Nile 7.22   21 Avon 7.06   22 Eddie Bauer 6.45   23 Redcats 5.85   24 Coldwater Creek 5.75   25 HSN 5.28   26 Office Max 5.12   27 Comp USA 4.65   28 Home Depot 4.42   29 Sears 3.79   30 Office Depot 3.25   31 Circuit City 3.23   32 JC Penney 2.94   33 Tiger Direct 2.31   34 Wal-mart 2.27   35 Drugstore.com 2.14   36 Cornerstone Brands 1.84   37 Neiman Marcus 1.80   38 Gateway 1.68   39 PC Mall 1.43   40 Newegg 1.28   41 Peapod 1.26   42 Best Buy 0.86   43 Buy.com 0.62   44 Overstock.com 0.59   45 1800 Flowers 0.47   46 CDW 0.34   47 Costco 0.14   48 FTD 0.13   49 Kmart 0.10   50 L.L. Bean Inc. N/A   Quality Rating Rank Site (seconds) 1 Zappos 5.74 2 Peapod 5.84 3 Dell 6.38 4 Drugstore.com 6.77 5 Staples 7.06 6 Blue Nile 7.15 7 Scholastic 7.15 8 Coldwater Creek 7.26 9 QVC.com 7.36 10 Office Max 7.59 11 Gateway 7.88 12 Office Depot 8.86 13 Eddie Bauer 9.18 14 Apple 9.22 15 Nordstrom 9.67 16 CDW 9.76 17 Toys R Us 9.78 18 Overstock.com 10.82 19 Circuit City 10.91 20 Amazon.com 11.05 21 Williams Sonoma 11.37 22 1800 Flowers 11.61 23 JC Penney 11.82 24 Avon 12.80 25 Costco 13.38 26 Tiger Direct 13.86 27 Buy.com 13.95 28 PC Mall 14.03 29 Cabelas 14.27   Average 14.38 30 Home Depot 15.06 31 Redcats 15.12 32 Netflix 15.43 33 HSN 15.49 34 Barnes and Noble 15.55 35 Cornerstone Brands 16.15 36 Kmart 17.70 37 GAP 18.82 38 FTD 19.68 39 Target 19.70 40 Quixtar 20.75 41 Best Buy 21.61 42 Wal-mart 21.97 43 Sears 22.28 44 Comp USA 24.48 45 Sony Style 24.74 46 Newegg 25.19 47 Neiman Marcus 25.99 48 HP Direct 30.55 49 Musicians Friend 39.32 50 L.L. Bean Inc. N/A 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).