Busiest e-tailers web performance pulls further away from the field

NCC Group's Quarterly Retail Report reveals widening gap between the best and the rest in UK e-tail
 
The gap has widened between the UK's top ten e-tailers and their competitors when it comes to website performance, a report from NCC Group has shown.
 
NCC Group's website monitoring arm has released its Quarterly Online Retail Report, which analyses the online performance of the UK's top 50 e-tailers over the last three months. The results show that the ten sites with the most traffic are continuing a dramatic pull away from their competitors, providing customers with faster download speeds and less website downtime.
 
The ten busiest sites boasted an improvement on average downtime this quarter, down from 57 minutes across 2011 Q4, to just 6.3 minutes. The top 50, by contrast, averaged a substantial two hours and 31 minutes. The gulf has also widened in download speeds, with the top ten averaging 4.4 seconds over the last three months. The rest of the top 50, on the other hand, recorded average download speeds of 5.2 seconds.
 
A comparison of these results to the previous quarter's show that customers are once again enjoying a better shopping experience when they visit the sites that receive the most traffic, with faster downloads and more uptime.
 
Bob Dowson, director at NCC Group, comments: "This quarter's results show a clear link between site popularity and web performance, with the busiest e-tailers again delivering a significantly better experience for their customers.
 
"The top sites have pulled further away after a busy Christmas period, and other online businesses need to make sure they're delivering an efficient customer experience all year, not just during busy periods.
 
"Online businesses must focus more of their efforts on site performance, otherwise the sites with the most traffic will continue to dominate. E-tailers must monitor and react to ensure their customers receive the best possible experience."