Europe Press Room: 2010
MEDIA ALERT: UK RETAILERS EXHIBIT UNEVEN PERFORMANCE DURING BUSIEST SHOPPING TIME OF THE YEAR
Keynote Systems monitors performance and availability of top UK retail sites during the Christmas rush
Many retail outlets advertised that last week was the final time to order gifts online to be delivered in time for Christmas. The increased traffic brought on by this last minute rush of online spending was reflected in the availability and performance of many of the UK's main retailers.
Keynote Systems, the global leader in Internet and mobile cloud monitoring, is tracking the performance of many of the UK's top retailers' websites over the Christmas period. Below are the results Tuesday December 7th - Tuesday December 14th.
Average homepage download speed (seconds) |
||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | BHS | 1.28 |
| 2 | Marks & Spencer | 1.75 |
| 3 | Selfridges | 1.92 |
| 4 | Toys'R'Us | 2.03 |
| 5 | House of Fraser | 2.35 |
| 5 | John Lewis | 2.35 |
| 7 | HMV | 2.58 |
| 8 | Littlewoods | 2.75 |
| 9 | Amazon | 2.83 |
| 10 | Tesco Direct | 2.84 |
| 11 | Debenhams | 2.99 |
| 12 | Argos | 3.06 |
| 13 | Hamleys | 4.01 |
| 14 | Play UK | 4.02 |
Average site availability (percentage) |
||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tesco Direct | 99.94 |
| 2 | Toys'R'Us | 99.77 |
| 3 | Selfridges | 99.72 |
| 4 | Hamleys | 99.60 |
| 5 | Argos | 99.55 |
| 5 | House of Fraser | 99.55 |
| 7 | Play UK | 99.32 |
| 8 | BHS | 98.82 |
| 9 | Debenhams | 98.77 |
| 10 | Amazon | 98.76 |
| 11 | Marks & Spencer | 98.59 |
| 12 | Littlewoods | 98.40 |
| 13 | HMV | 98.30 |
| 14 | John Lewis | 98.02 |
None of the sites monitored achieved 100% availability this week, compared with five sites over the same period last week. This means that Web users visiting a site were not always able to access the home page, which is likely to drive potential customers away to other sites. For example, Keynote data showed that many Web site visitors would have been unable to access the HMV and John Lewis sites this week and, given that the IMRG has predicted that £6.4 billion will be spent online in the UK this Christmas, this potential loss of custom could have significantly impacted takings.
Despite an average availability throughout the week of 98.59%, the Marks and Spencer Web site experienced availability issues with the site being completely unavailable to visitors at around 9pm on Sunday, December 12th.
On the plus side, BHS, Marks & Spencer and Selfridges all achieved impressive download speeds of less than two seconds this week. Conversely, Hamleys and Play UK struggled with download times of over four seconds.
"The run up to Christmas and January sales are increasingly becoming a testing time for online retailers," said Sam Patel, Web performance consultant at Keynote Systems. "An influx of site visits and an increased number of transactions can often result in sites slowing down to cope with traffic numbers. While it may appear that the availability of sites this week is impressive, retailers really should be aiming for 100% availability, regardless of the time of year, to ensure that they're not driving potential customers away."
Editorial Contacts:
Fiona Halkerston and Jonathan Mathias, Johnson King, +44 (0) 20 7401 7968, keynoteteam@johnsonking.co.uk
