Press Room: 2006
Computer Hardware Retailers Gain Competitive Edge With Keynote Competitive Research
SAN MATEO, Calif., — October 26, 2006 — Keynote Competitive Research, the industry analysis group of Keynote Systems (Nasdaq: KEYN), today announced the release of two new competitive research studies of the online computer hardware retail industry. Together, the studies offer extensive detail on the performance and competitive positioning of leading computer hardware retailers online.
Keynote Competitive Research produces leading edge competitive industry research using the company’s global measurement computer network and commercially available test and measurement products. Keynote Competitive Research regularly evaluates the current state of online customer experience, service levels (responsiveness/reliability) and implementation of best practices on leading Web sites across a wide variety of industries such as financial services, travel and retail. Industry studies and Web performance indices from Keynote Competitive Research are available for purchase. To download research abstracts for these studies please visit www.keynote.com.
The Keynote Customer Experience Rankings for Computer Hardware Web Sites
The Keynote Customer Experience Rankings for Computer Hardware Web Sites examines the online experience of more than 2,000 computer hardware customers as they interacted with ten leading computer hardware retail Web sites. The study details how each site performs versus competitors across key business objectives, including customer acquisition. The study also offers computer hardware retailers specific, actionable steps they can take to improve their e-business performance, with a particular focus on improving customer satisfaction, brand affinity and customer acquisition.
The Keynote Customer Experience Rankings for Computer Hardware Web Sites provides competitive rankings of the leading computer hardware Web sites in terms of customer satisfaction, brand preference and customer acquisition success and outlines the key areas of site performance, such as online purchasing satisfaction, that have the most impact on a Web site’s success in these areas. The study captures more than 250+ metrics for each site that are distilled into rankings for dozens of critical categories including online purchasing process satisfaction and customer support satisfaction, as well as the overall design and organization of the site. Further, the study examines why the most successful sites succeed in these areas and offers specific, actionable steps companies can take to improve performance.
Keynote’s technology and research methodology offers a unique view into both customer attitudes and behavior by questioning customers and examining their online behavior as they interact with each site from their own home or office environment. By combining the best of Web analytics research with the best of traditional market research, Keynote provides deep and comprehensive insights into online customer behavior and satisfaction. By capturing these insights Keynote is able to make specific actionable recommendations for improving the overall business effectiveness of each site included in a study.
“Keynote’s Customer Experience Rankings studies offer computer hardware retailers a unique and detailed understanding of how customers interact with and view their site and their competitors’ sites,” said Steve Foster, director of competitive research for Keynote. “Keynote Competitive Research offers insights that no other product can offer to help improve online customer acquisition and customer satisfaction.”
Keynote Service Level Rankings for Computer Hardware Web Sites
The Keynote Service Level Rankings for Computer Hardware Web Sites examines the technical performance of leading bank Web sites, including site responsiveness and reliability. The study uses Keynote’s Transaction Perspective® product, the leading subscription-based service for measuring and monitoring Web site performance. Transaction Perspective examines performance from multiple geographic locations and mimics the actions of consumers. The result is a collection of more than 6,500 data points for each site detailing their online technical performance.
The study offers computer hardware sites insight into their technical performance relative to their competitors, and provides detailed data on site performance across seven key measures critical to the operational health of an online computer hardware site. Specifically, the study provides performance data and competitive rankings in site reliability, including site availability and outages, and site responsiveness. Also included are performance data and competitive rankings in the areas of load handling, response time consistency, geographic consistency and responsiveness over both high-speed (DSL) and low-speed connections. Overall, the study captures data and ranks sites in more than 40 performance metrics.
“The infrastructure and effort put into Keynote’s service level measurement and monitoring research is difficult to replicate,” said Ben Rushlo, manager of professional services for Keynote. “Keynote offers the most detailed, most accurate measure of operational performance available. It’s a tool most CIOs in the computer hardware retail industry find indispensable.’
Amazon Ranked the Best Online Computer Hardware Web Site
Amazon was ranked as the #1 site in the Keynote Customer Experience Rankings for Computer Hardware Web Sites, with the best overall ranking across the 250+ customer experience metrics measured in the study, as well as for its #1 ranking in terms of customer satisfaction and brand affinity. Dell was ranked as the best site overall in terms of online customer acquisition, and was ranked second overall in terms of the overall online customer experience.
| Keynote Customer Experience Rankings (Overall Customer Satisfaction and Experience) | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Amazon |
| Keynote Service Level Rankings Site Reliability (Indicator of Site Being Highly Available, Low Downtime) |
Keynote Service Level Rankings Site Responsiveness (Indicator of How Quickly Pages Loaded, Transactions Completed) |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sony | 1 | Comp USA |
Sony and CompUSA ranked #1 in the Keynote Service Level Rankings for Computer Hardware Web Sites. Sony had the industry’s best reliability, indicating the site was highly available and experienced little or no downtime. CompUSA had the industry’s best site responsiveness, an indication of how fast computer hardware retail sites were in downloading pages and executing transactions.
Several leading computer hardware retail sites examined in the study recorded major site outages, where their sites were unavailable to visitors for more than 40+ hours over the one month evaluation period. According to Keynote, the industry average for site outages is just 2 hours in a 30 day period across the computer hardware industry. Also, many of leading computer hardware sites showed slower than average broadband performance due to the increasingly complex pages offered up to consumers.
Full rankings for each study and further detailed data and analysis are available in the full studies.
Computer Hardware Sites Included in the Studies
The Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), Comp USA, Dell (Nasdaq: DELL), Gateway (NYSE: GTW), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), Lenovo, PC Connection and Sony (NYSE: SNE) Web sites were evaluated for the Keynote Customer Experience Rankings for Computer Hardware Web Sites and The Keynote Service Level Rankings for Computer Hardware Web Sites.
Keynote Technology Behind the Studies
To conduct its competitive industry research, Keynote uses its commercially available test and measurement products. Keynote customer experience studies employ Keynote WebEffective™, an on-demand software platform for conducting in-depth user experience research which integrates the best aspects of usability, behavior and attitudinal research. Keynote service level ranking studies use the Keynote Transaction Perspective® measurement product to evaluate key performance indicators, including responsiveness and reliability, for Web sites in the study.
For more information about Keynote's Competitive Intelligence offerings view: www.keynote.com/solutions/competitive_intelligence_tpl.html
For an abstract of the Keynote Competitive Research Studies on Computer Hardware sites view: www.keynote.com/downloads/cem/ComputerHardware.pdf
For information on purchasing a Keynote Competitive research study please email sales@keynote.com or call 1-800-KEYNOTE (539-6683).
About Keynote
Keynote Systems (Nasdaq “KEYN”) is the global test and measurement company for mobile communications and online business performance. As an independent and trusted third-party, Keynote provides IT and marketing executives with an unbiased view into their Internet services from around the world. For over a decade, we have been providing measurement data and testing capabilities that allow companies to understand and improve their customer’s online and mobile experience. Keynote has four test and measurement businesses: Web performance, mobile quality, streaming & VoIP, and customer experience/UX. In addition, our industry analysis group called Keynote Competitive Research publishes proprietary studies measuring customer experience and service levels across a wide range of industries.
Known as The Mobile and Internet Performance Authority®, Keynote has a market-leading infrastructure of 2,400 measurement computers and mobile devices in over 240 geographic locations around the world. Keynote also maintains one of the most representative panels of online users consisting of 160,000 consumers. Our on-demand, hassle-free infrastructure allows business to access services they need, when they need them to pinpoint and fix mobile quality and Internet problems before they impact customers.
We help over 2,600 corporate customers become “the best of the best” by helping them improve online business performance and mobile communications quality. Our customers represent top Internet and mobile companies including American Express, BP, Caterpillar, Dell, Disney, eBay, ESPN Mobile, E*TRADE, Expedia, FedEx, Microsoft, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and Vodafone.
Keynote Systems, Inc. is headquartered in San Mateo, California and can be reached at www.keynote.com or by travel in the U.S. at (650) 403-2400.
Keynote, The Internet Performance Authority, The Mobile and Internet Performance Authority and Perspective are registered trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2006 Keynote Systems, Inc.
Editorial Contacts:
Dan Berkowitz, Keynote Systems, (650) 403-3305, dan.berkowitz@keynote.com
Dan Cahill, Roaring Communications, (415) 552-3999, dcahill@roaringcommunications.com
