The Keynote Customer Experience Rankings and Service Level Rankings for the Online Retail Industry cover three site categories: electronics, apparel, books & music. The two study components (Customer Experience and Service Levels) are part of Keynote’s syndicated competitive intelligence program designed to benchmark and improve the technical and business performance of leading Web businesses. The rankings are based on large-scale studies that employ Keynote’s unique methodology and expertise to provide comparison metrics and insights into best practices in the area of customer experience and service levels (site responsiveness and reliability). Keynote’s approach to syndicated Web research is distinctly different and more valuable then other types of Web research currently available on the market. For the customer experience studies Keynote utilizes WebEffective™, its market-leading software-on-demand platform, for conducting in-depth customer experience research which integrates the best aspects of usability, behavior and attitudinal preferences and research. The studies   Related Links   Press release. Online Retail study abstracts Find out how to purchase More information on Keynote Competitive Intelligence studies utilize actual panels of online consumers (usually 200 people per site that meet particular demographics) who are directed to perform a series of tasks on each site. The online studies provide for real-time feedback as the tasks are performed. The goal for the customer experience studies is to better understand how to improve site conversion by understanding the “why” behind the “what.” For the service level studies Keynote utilizes Transaction Perspective®, its market-leading service for Web performance test and measurement along with its global infrastructure of measurement computers, to examine the technical performance of Web sites in the areas of responsiveness and reliability. Keynote runs over 6,500 simulated transactions against each site studied from 10 geographic locations in the U.S. over a one moth period. An additional 40 key performance metrics are gathered and assessed. With this data in hand, Keynote analysts rank the sites in the study on each of seven key performance factors. The overall goal of Keynote industry research is to provide detailed metrics, insights, analysis and actionable recommendations to site operators for IMPROVING online customer satisfaction and site responsiveness and reliability. Here are the sites included in Keynote’s customer experience and service level studies of retail Web sites: The electronics retail study Amazon.com Best Buy Buy.com CDW Circuit City Dell Office Depot Overstock.com Staples Wal-Mart The apparel retail study Banana Republic Eddie Bauer Gap JC Penney Kohls L.L. Bean Macy’s Neiman Marcus Nordstrom Saks Fifth Avenue The books & music retail study Amazon.com Borders Barnes & Noble Buy.com Overstock.com Target Tower Wal-Mart