Amazon.com Maintains Lead -- Keynote Releases Studies Examining Online Retailers

Keynote Competitive Research, the industry analysis group of Keynote (Nasdaq:KEYN), today announced the release of two new research studies examining leading retail Web sites. The first study examines leading consumer electronics retailer Web sites; and the second examines leading online retailers of books, music, movies and games. Each study contains two parts: an in-depth examination of the online customer experience and an in-depth study of site service levels, including site responsiveness and reliability. The unique data and insights uncovered by Keynote Competitive Research are acquired through the use of the company’s commercially available Web performance and customer experience test and measurement products. The studies are available for purchase from Keynote. For more information or details on purchasing the complete study, please view: http://www.keynote.com/keynote_competitive_research/industry_studies/ retail_index.html. (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)

Customer Experience Rankings for Online Retailers

The Keynote Customer Experience Ranking® for Consumer Electronics Web Sites study examined the online experience of more than 2,200 consumers as they interacted with eleven (11) leading consumer electronics Web sites, including those for Amazon.com, Best Buy, Buy.com, Circuit City, Dell, Office Depot and Staples. The Keynote Customer Experience Ranking® for Online Retailers study examined the online experience of more than 1,800 consumers as they interacted with nine (9) leading online retailers of books, music, movies and games, including Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Best Buy, Buy.com, Target and Wal-Mart. The studies detail how each site performs versus competitors across key business objectives, including customer satisfaction and customer acquisition, and captures more than 250+ metrics for each site. The studies provide competitive rankings in dozens of categories, as well as specific and actionable steps retailers can take to improve their online performance, customer satisfaction, brand appeal and customer acquisition.

The company’s 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.

Service Level Rankings for Online Retailers

The Keynote Service Level Rankings studies examine the technical performance of leading online retail Web sites, including site responsiveness and reliability. The studies use Keynote’s Transaction Perspective® solution, the leading subscription-based service for measuring and monitoring Web site performance. Transaction Perspective mimics the actions of consumers and examines performance from multiple geographic locations, collecting more than 6,500 data points for each site to detail online technical performance. The studies offer online retailers insight into their technical performance relative to their competitors, and provide detailed data on their site’s performance across seven key measures critical to the operational health of an online business.

Amazon Ranks #1 in Customer Experience

Amazon was ranked as the #1 Web site in both the Keynote Customer Experience Rankings for Consumer Electronics Web Sites and in the Keynote Customer Experience Rankings for Online Retailers, which examined retailers of books, music, movies and games. Amazon received the number one rankings because the site performed best overall across the 250+ customer experience metrics measured in each study. Amazon was a consistently top-ranked site in terms of price satisfaction, search satisfaction, product research satisfaction and customer support. In the books, music, movies and games retail industry, Barnes & Noble and Best Buy also performed strongly in terms of online customer experience. Barnes & Noble was highly ranked in part because of its strong performance in product interest and product research, as well as strong search satisfaction and purchase process satisfaction. Best Buy was also a leader in the consumer electronics study, ranking a close second behind Amazon. Best Buy’s strength in the consumer electronics industry was bolstered by strong consumer interest in the products on the site, and strong satisfaction with the site’s purchase process, product search and customer support. Best Buy made significant gains across seven (7) of the nine (9) core categories measured in the consumer electronics study.

Overstock, Circuit City and Staples Number One in Service Levels

In the Keynote Service Level Rankings for Consumer Electronics Web Sites study, Circuit City had the industry’s best reliability, an indication the site was highly available and experienced little or no downtime. In the same study, the Staples site had the industry’s best site responsiveness, an indication of how fast sites were in downloading pages and completing transactions. In the Keynote Service Level Rankings for Online Retailers study, which examined retailers of books, music, movies and games, Overstock.com had that industry’s best reliability and best responsiveness.

These Keynote Customer Experience Rankings and Keynote Service Level Rankings for online retailers and consumer electronics Web Sites were conducted in Summer 2007.

Companies Included in the Studies

The Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN); Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS); Best Buy (NYSE:BBY); Borders (NYSE:BGP); Buy.com; Circuit City (NYSE:CC); Overstock.com (Nasdaq:OSTK); Target (NYSE:TGT) and Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) sites were included in the Keynote Customer Experience Rankings for Online Retailers study. In addition to these sites, the Costco (Nasdaq:COST); Dell (Nasdaq:DELL); Office Depot (NYSE:ODP); Sears (Nasdaq:SHLD) and Staples (Nasdaq:SPLS) sites were included in the Keynote Customer Experience Rankings for Consumer Electronics Web Sites study and in the service level studies. For more details on how your organization can benefit from the study or for information on purchasing the study, please view http://www.keynote.com/keynote_competitive_research/industry_studies/ retail_index.html. (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)

About Keynote

Keynote Systems (Nasdaq:KEYN) is the global leader in on-demand test & measurement solutions for continuously improving the online experience. 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, Keynote has 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, Keynote’s 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 locations around the world. Keynote also maintains one of the most representative panels of online users consisting of 160,000 consumers. Keynote’s on-demand, hassle-free infrastructure allows businesses to access services they need, when they need them to pinpoint and fix mobile quality and Internet problems before they impact customers.

Keynote helps over 2,600 corporate customers become “the best of the best” by helping them improve online business performance and mobile communications quality. Keynote’s customers represent top Internet and mobile companies including American Express, BP, Caterpillar, Dell, Disney, eBay, ESPN Mobile, E*TRADE, Expedia, FedEx, Microsoft, SonyEricsson, 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 phone in the U.S. at (650) 403-2400.

Keynote, The Internet Performance Authority, Perspective and Customer Experience Rankings are registered trademarks and The Mobile and Internet Performance Authority and True Experience are trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2007 Keynote Systems, Inc.

Contacts:

Keynote Systems, Inc.
Dan Berkowitz, 650-403-3305
dberkowitz@keynote.com
or
Roaring Communications
Dan Cahill, 415-552-3999
dcahill@roaringcommunications.com