Press Room: 2003
E-Commerce Times to Publish Weekly Results of Keynote’s New Consumer E-Commerce Transaction Index
Publishing Deal Gives Leading Retail Magazine Rights to Valuable Web Transaction Data
Etail 2003, Boston, Mass., — August 12, 2003 — Keynote Systems (Nasdaq: KEYN), the Internet Performance Authority®, and the E-Commerce Times®, the Internet’s leading e-commerce publication, today announced a content relationship under which the publication will have the rights for complete results of Keynote’s new Consumer E-Commerce Transaction Index updated weekly on its Web site.
Keynote’s new Consumer E-Commerce Transaction Index is uniquely valuable as the retail industry’s first and only Web transaction performance benchmarking index that measures the response time and success rate for executing a typical online transaction on many of the leading retail sites in the United States. The weekly aggregated results of all index members will be published regularly in the E-Commerce Times at www.EcommerceTimes.com.
Additionally, Keynote announced today the first two weeks’ worth of results for the new Consumer E-Commerce Transaction Index (see separate press release).
The E-Commerce Times is the leading publication for e-business executives and IT decision makers who need to keep up with breaking news and the latest analysis and business strategies to keep ahead of the competition.
“The E-Commerce Times was launched five years ago specifically to serve the needs of those engaged in e-business and to report on the Internet’s impact on business. It attracts an audience of buyers and decision-makers who need timely industry news and reliable analysis,” said Richard Kern, Publisher of, ECT News Network, the parent company of the E-Commerce Times. “Our goal is to continually add content on the topics that are vitally important to our readers and Keynote’s reputation for gathering independent, unbiased data is the perfect fit for the editorial mission of the E-Commerce Times. The information from the Keynote Consumer E-Commerce Transaction Index is an important part of helping our readers achieve the best results from the Internet channel.”
“Keynote is pleased to have a relationship with the E-Commerce Times. Keynote pioneered the use of vertical indices and benchmarks for Web application performance management over four years ago,” said Arnold Waldstein, vice president of marketing and business development for Keynote. “Keynote’s measurement methodology was developed from the ground up for the Internet and for companies doing business on the Web which makes a partnership with the E-Commerce Times, a pioneer in covering e-commerce since its inception in 1998, very appropriate.”
As the leader in Web performance monitoring and management, Keynote provides accurate, representative and industry-specific performance benchmarking data to meet the challenges posed to vertical industries whose livelihood is directly correlated with the ability of customers to successfully conduct revenue-generating transactions on a Web site.
The 10 retailers that make up Keynote’s new index include: Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), Eddie Bauer (OTC: SPGLA), JCPenney NYSE: JCP), Office Depot (NYSE: ODP), Office Max (NYSE: OMX), Sears (NYSE: S), Staples (Nasdaq: SPLS), Target (NYSE: TGT), Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT). These companies receive a significant majority of their revenue from online sales and a high volume of Web site visitors flock to them every day to complete transactions similar to the ones being measured. As such they are the de facto benchmark companies against which retailers doing business on the Web should measure themselves.
The aggregated results of Keynote’s E-Commerce Transaction Performance Index will be published regularly by the E-Commerce Times on its Web site and include data for all 10 retailers on the index. The top five retailers on the index, along with their response times and success rates will be published weekly on Keynote’s Web site at www.keynote.com, while the worst retailer will be presented anonymously.
How Retailers Can Use The Index
As a result of the rapid growth of online retail, the importance of receiving real time information about Web performance and customer experience is critical to the success of any e-commerce application. Poor transactional performance can drive customers right into the hands of competitors. To combat this, those engaged in e-commerce need to be absolutely certain that the data they receive about performance is not only accurate, timely and delivered from multiple locations around the globe but also specific to their business.
About the Keynote Consumer E-Commerce Index
The Keynote Consumer E-Commerce Transaction Index accurately measures the performance and availability of Web transactions that represent a typical consumer purchasing a popular product at the most active e-commerce sites on the Web today.
The companies selected for inclusion in the Consumer E-Commerce Transaction Index were ranked in the top percentile of all E-Commerce companies based on visitor traffic, online revenues and consumer interest. Each Web transaction measured is representative of the sequence of steps that a consumer would perform on each company’s Web site leading up to the purchase of a product or item. The product or item selected in the transaction represents a popular item that a consumer would purchase on that particular Web site. The number and type of steps that are measured in each transaction uses a consistent methodology, allowing for a direct comparison from one retailer to another in the same market.
How The Keynote Consumer E-Commerce Transaction Index Works
Each transaction is measured using the following six components:
- Accessing the home page
- Searching for a product
- Viewing the product
- Adding the product to a shopping cart
- Proceeding to check-out
- Logging into an account for purchase
Keynote’s transaction methodology provides the most accurate view of end user experience by taking its measurements using the market leading browser coupled with the most comprehensive geographically distributed infrastructure of measurement computers and backbone representation.
Performance data of the sites measured by The Keynote Consumer E-Commerce Transaction Index is taken using Keynote’s Transaction Perspective® service as measured on an hourly basis from the 10 largest metropolitan areas in the country.
About Keynote
Keynote Systems (Nasdaq: KEYN), The Internet Performance Authority®, is the global leader in Internet performance management and testing services that improve the quality of e-business. Keynote’s services enable corporate enterprises to benchmark, diagnose, test and manage their e-business systems both inside and outside the firewall. Approximately 2,300 corporate IT departments and 15,400 individual subscribers rely on the company’s easy-to-use and cost-effective services to optimize revenues and reduce downtime costs without requiring additional complex and costly software implementations.
Keynote Systems, Inc. was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in San Mateo, California. The company can be reached at www.keynote.com or by phone in the U.S. at 650-403-2400.
About E-Commerce Times
The E-Commerce Times® is the world's largest source of original e-commerce news and information for business decision-makers and IT professionals. Content from the E-Commerce Times is syndicated both in print and online, with distribution through thousands of Web sites, worldwide. The E-Commerce Times is published by ECT News Network, Inc. -- a privately-held media company, based in Los Angeles, California. ECT News Network also produces www.TechNewsWorld.com, www.CRMBuyer.com and www.LinuxInsider.com. For information about ECT, please call toll-free (877) 328-5500.
© 2003 Keynote Systems, Inc. Keynote and The Internet Performance Authority are registered trademarks of Keynote. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Contacts:
Della Lowe, Keynote Systems, Inc., (650) 403-3233, dlowe@keynote.com
Dan Berkowitz, Keynote Systems, Inc., (650) 403-3305, dberkowitz@keynote.com
