Investor Relations: News
| Best Retail Electronics Web Sites Revealed in Keynote Systems Study |
-- For Technical Quality, Buy.com Ranks First in Reliability While TigerDirect.com Ranks First in Responsiveness -- With 2,000 Participants and 60,000 Technical Measurements Across 10 Retailers, Keynote Answers the Questions: How Effective, Responsive and Reliable are the Top Retail Electronics Sites, and What Can Those Sites Do to Improve the Online Shopping Experience? SAN MATEO, Calif., Dec 13, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Keynote Competitive Research, the industry research group of Keynote(R) Systems (NASDAQ:KEYN), today announced the results of its Q4 2010 study of retail electronics Web sites. In the Q4 2010 study Amazon.com took first place for Best Overall Customer Experience. In the Technical Quality rankings, Buy.com took first for Reliability while TigerDirect.com ranked first for Responsiveness. The companies included in the study were: Amazon.com, Best Buy, Buy.com, Costco, Dell, Newegg.com, Sears, Target, TigerDirect.com and Walmart. The study is available for immediate purchase by visiting: http://bit.ly/aRAbDg. Recognition for "Best of the Best" Top ranked companies in Keynote Competitive Research studies are invited to participate in the company's Online Excellence Program which recognizes the "best of the best" Web sites as ranked in the studies. The rankings are based on responses from real users, who were observed as they accomplished tasks on each of the sites studied, as well as real data collected through Keynote Web site monitoring to assess the technical quality of the sites. For each study, Keynote recognizes the companies with the overall top ranking, as well as those exhibiting excellence in specific categories. More Information about the Customer Experience Rankings For the customer experience component of the study, Keynote sent 200 online users to each of the 10 Web sites for a total of 2,000 people participating. The users performed a number of tasks on each of the sites and then answered questions about their experience in performing the required tasks. Those reactions and comments were then analyzed by Keynote's powerful software, the results tallied and rankings formulated. In 2010, visual appeal and price satisfaction remained the most important aspects of the overall customer experience, most accurately predicting brand perceptions and conversion. Product Interest became slightly less important in 2010, while Search Satisfaction, Purchase Process, Organization & Navigation, and Perceived Site Performance become more important; Customer Support and Product Research remained key drivers for Brand and Conversion. "Interestingly, despite the prevailing bargain-hunting environment, visual appeal edged out price satisfaction as the most powerful predictor of overall brand perception and conversion outcomes for electronics retailers," noted Christopher Musto, general manager of the Keynote Competitive Research group at Keynote. "Our real user testing revealed that a good-looking, well-organized site is a bigger driver of brand affinity and purchases than either consumers or retailers themselves likely realize." More Information about theTechnical Quality Rankings In addition to evaluating overall customer experience with its panel of actual users, the Keynote study also examined two broad aspects of technical quality: responsiveness and reliability. Responsiveness comprises: high speed response (broadband), DSL (midband) response, response time consistency, geographic uniformity and load handling; while reliability is comprised of availability and outages. For the study, Keynote monitoring computers measured a typical transaction that began at the site's home page, searched for a product, filtered the search results, displayed the product details and performed a checkout to the point where billing information was needed. The transaction included a login (return customer) in the checkout process. In the two components of 'Technical Quality' TigerDirect.com set the standard for Responsiveness (or speed), while Buy.com led the group in Reliability (or availability). In order to collect the Technical Quality data Keynote used its Transaction Perspective(R) product, the leading on demand service for monitoring Web site performance from the end user perspective. With Keynote Transaction Perspective the company is able to examine Web site performance from multiple geographic locations by simulating users clicking through transactions on a Web site. Keynote collected more than 6,000 data points that detailed each of the sites' online technical performance in terms of page responsiveness and reliability. "While all of the sites in the study have figured out how to provide consistent service levels across all geographies - something that could not be said last year - all but two sites reported outages during this year's study period, meaning a significant number of their customers would have been impacted for at least an hour," noted Musto. "In addition to these reliability issues, some of the study sites' home pages were extremely slow to load over basic DSL connections, with some taking over nine seconds. In such a competitive market as retail electronics, solving these performance issues could prove the difference in being a winner or a loser this holiday shopping season and beyond." More About Keynote Competitive Research Keynote Competitive Research produces leading industry research using the company's commercially available Web performance monitoring products. Keynote regularly evaluates the current state of online customer experience, technical quality (speed/reliability) and implementation of best practices on leading Web sites across a wide variety of vertical markets including financial services, automotive, media/entertainment, retail, travel and technology. Availability of Study The study is available for purchase and comes with extensive analysis of brand impact, acquisition impact, reliability and responsiveness and the factors that drive sites' performance in these areas. Clients will receive an executive presentation, extensive back-up charts and illustrations, and online access to all clickstreams, verbatims, question responses and panel facts for all panelists at all sites for all tasks and can download and use this data in their own research. To inquire about a copy, please visit us online: http://bit.ly/cq3XhN Follow Keynote on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/KeynoteSystems and www.twitter.com/Keynote_Mobile About Keynote Keynote Systems (NASDAQ:KEYN) is the global leader in Internet and mobile cloud monitoring. We provide companies with solutions for continuously improving the online experience. Founded in 1995, Keynote provides testing, monitoring and measurement products and services for any enterprise including online portals, e-commerce sites, B2B sites, mobile operators and mobile infrastructure providers. Keynote products and services help companies improve customer experience in four areas: Web performance, mobile quality, streaming and real user experience testing. Known as The Mobile and Internet Performance Authority(TM), Keynote has a market-leading on-demand infrastructure of over 3,000 measurement computers and mobile devices in over 240 locations around the world. Keynote's 2,800 customers represent top Internet and mobile companies including American Express, AT&T, Disney, eBay, E*TRADE, Expedia, Google, Microsoft, SonyEricsson, T-Mobile and Vodafone. Keynote Systems, Inc. is headquartered in San Mateo, California and can be reached at www.keynote.com or by phone in the U.S. at 1-800-KEYNOTE. Keynote(R), DataPulse(R), CustomerScope(R), Keynote CE Rankings(R), Keynote Customer Experience Rankings(R), Perspective(R), Keynote Red Alert(R), Keynote Traffic Perspective(R), Keynote WebEffective(R), The Internet Performance Authority(R), MyKeynote(R) , SIGOS(R), SITE(R), Keynote(TM), The Mobile & Internet Performance Authority(TM), Screen Sensing Technology and Keynote FlexUse(TM) are trademarks or registered trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2010 Keynote Systems, Inc. SOURCE: Keynote Systems Keynote Systems, Inc. |