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Performance Tracking  > 2007 Holiday Season  > Introduction

WebSitePulse 2007 Holiday Retail Performance and Uptime Report


The Holidays are the most important time of the year for the online retailers, and it's not without a reason: according to a BIGresearch survey, the Internet will influence 30.2 percent of holiday sales this year, up from 28.9 percent last year. Also this year, Cyber Monday, the ceremonial kickoff to the online holiday shopping season, is expected to be more promotional than ever as retailers offer one-day promotions and special offers to bring holiday shoppers online. The stakes are being raised for retailers to provide a consistently positive, more sophisticated experience for the online holiday shoppers. All 150 retailers surveyed by Forrester Research indicated their top priorities as: fixing website design and performance issues, improving the efficiency of online marketing, and enhancing cross-channel integration. According to Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org, "Companies are investing in new features that will keep customers coming back, and homepages everywhere are getting a major facelift."

The WebSitePulse Performance Reports measure Website Uptime and online transaction Response Time as the most important metrics for the availability and the reliability of any web-based operation, critical for the End Users' overall online experience. The Reports reflect not only the performance of the websites' home pages, but typically measure a complete web transaction, like selecting an item, adding it to the shopping cart and checkout, representative for the End Users' interactions with a website. Measurements of the multi-step transactions are made every 15 minutes, simultaneously from 3 different geographical locations. WebSitePulse advanced monitoring system has automated, built-in false alarm prevention and error verification controls that ensure the reliability of the measurement results. The Reports reflect the most common performance criteria: response time and availability - but in-debt analytical information is also collected and stored in the WebSitePulse system for future references.