Retailers are potentially losing up to £5.65 billion per year in sales because of poorly performing websites, it has been warned.

According to research by Hostway and Zeus Technology, website issues such as slow loading pages were the main reasons why consumers abandon online transactions.

Want to the see the facts, and failings of the UK's top 50 retailers, full access to the March Results are available at http://www.sitemorse.com/rt/644/c59fff48

The survey of 2,033 consumers highlighted that on average they had abandoned 5.5 online transactions per person over the last 12 months. The company said that with recent figures showing that UK consumers spend an average of £30 per transaction, it is clear that retailers are still missing out on significant online revenues.
“Last year UK retail consumers spent £38bn online, yet many people still have frustrations when shopping online,’ commented Neil Barton, director at Hostway. “The research revealed that over two thirds of the respondents were wasting on average up to two and a half days a year reloading or waiting for web pages to load properly. With many of today’s websites containing a lot more multimedia content, it is important that consumers receive a good online experience otherwise they may simply abandon their transaction.’

The research also revealed that a massive 82% of consumers said that if a business’ website performed badly it would dissuade them from buying goods from that organisation on the web or even in store. This clearly demonstrates the importance of having a good online perception and the need for retailers to ensure their online customer experience is a positive one.

Many retailers have used online images and video to make their websites more attractive and interactive, however it has also led to them seeing more performance issues. 70% of the people surveyed said they were frustrated by how long it takes many websites to load images, and by the start stop nature of multimedia web content. When asked what was the biggest user frustration when visiting websites, ‘web pages taking too long to load’ (46%) was cited at the biggest complaint. This was followed by ‘online advertising’ (24%), ‘poor website navigation’ (16%) and ‘bad web links’ (13%).

Interestingly, the research also revealed that the majority of consumers believed customer loyalty should dictate the online experience they receive on certain websites. 71% stated that if they regularly purchase goods from a particular website they should be rewarded with a better web experience than those people who are just browsing.

Original article from Customer Strategy;
http://www.customer-strategy.co.uk/news/-/asset_publisher/p6GD/content/poor-websites-costing-businesses-billions

We have put together an offer for anyone working in / with UK Local Government. You can purchase the last 12 months findings, along with a pre ‘Index’ site review for £650.00

The pre ‘Index’ review allows you to focus corrective action on the items that will immediately benefit site visitors and improve your rankings (quality, performance and compliance) - we also include unlimited ‘in browser’ testing for 10 users and full training.

- Access to all previous reports and findings run by us over the previous 12 months.
- A review (first 150 pages) is available from us 3 weeks before the next Quarterly Index is produced.
(option of a online workshop – 90 minute call, key focus to improve your online experience and score, £225.00)
- Unlimited access to Snapshot module for up to 10 users until the end of April.
- Snapshot academy attendance session for all users

For all those that purchase, and thereafter take an annual service will receive a credit to the value of the March Offer.

Click here to purchase this offer on-line now.

Further information is available from Dave Harper, dharper@sitemorse.com

All prices are exclusive of VAT. The offer is only valid for orders confirmed and invoiced in March 2010. This offer is not available in conjunction with any other.

Sitemorse soon to deliver a global first with JavaScript testing and monitoring.

JavaScript is in increasing use on all types of web sites, ranging from simple rollover images and form validation scripts, to complex "Web 2.0"-style dynamic AJAX interactive web applications. These scripts are no less susceptible to coding errors and mistakes than the HTML code that makes up the rest of the web pages they appear on.

Up until now, there has been no way of automatically checking a web site for these errors. Sitemorse's new JavaScript testing feature examines the JavaScript code used on your site, be it "event handlers" processing keypresses and mouse clicks, or in-line or included scripts, and comprehensively examines it all for syntax errors. These types of errors will prevent your scripts from performing their intended operation - with results ranging from faulty image rollovers, to missing analytics data, to forms that cannot be submitted, to pages whose major functions fail to operate correctly.

Some useful comments posted against a recent article on e-consultancy http://econsultancy.com/blog/5498-progressive-enhancement-why-do-some-ecommerce-platforms-get-javascript-so-wrong

After we received the threats from Sitecore (somewhat of a strange reaction after we advised Sitecore of ‘live’ and rather serious errors on a key reference client’s home page – there had been 90 plus days of denial...) Its good to see the issues have been corrected.

A little bewildering were the threats and aggression from the Chairman (perhaps the facts are not welcome?) and the posting on twitter from their staff ‘thanking us for pointing out the problems’. The legal threats and argument shouldn’t be about hitting out at Sitemorse, for what's in the public domain, but focus action towards protecting and minimise client liability.

Perhaps the trick in getting a site sorted is to: try for over 90 days, challenge the vendors claims, and then post to their twitter – its solved the embarrassment and the potential legal liability for Toshiba anyway.

All too often CMS tools are sold with promises that ‘your users can’t ever get it wrong’ - fundamentally they can and they will continue to cause issues and problems. The CMS is limited on what it can see and when it can check – reliance on the CMS alone is a recipe for disaster.

Its not the agency or the CMS vendor that loses the client, frustrates the investor or ends up in court.

Sitecores website

Great to be involved again (8 years, a long 'online' time!), best of luck to all Local Government organisations with the publishing of this years Better Connected on March 1st.

Sitemorse is supporting with various tests around function, availability, resilience and home page.

Sitemorse is pleased to announce that it is able to offer its innovative Email module at a reduced price for the month of February.

The price has been reduced by 50% to £1,200 (+ vat) for any Client (new or existing) that wishes to add it to their Sitemorse service. The offer is conditional on the client implementing 10 Instant Snapshot users (these are provided at no charge) and the invoice is received, both before the end of February.

10 seconds introduction
We index all email address, and check that they are valid, setup and can receive email. We review the email infrastructure and alert to; poor performing, faulty servers and those with set up errors. Checks are on web pages, and across your PDF’s

Common issues we alert you to include, individual’s left (but still have linked email), address not setup, or the server has a full disk.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse for Argos, it has dropped further down the top 50 UK retail sites table as tested in February for The Retail Bulletin, to take it to the foot of table with a score of little more than one out of 10.

By Glynn Davis

This is a further blow to one of the UK’s leading multi-channel retailers, which has now dropped a cumulative 39 places over the past quarter from a score of 4.44 out of 10 in December to a current 1.3.

The list of sites tested has been created jointly by The Retail Bulletin and specialist website testing company Sitemorse that used its automated testing of the first 125 pages, reading page content, reviewing templates and checking the delivery infrastructure to generate a ranked table.

“Why was Argos at he bottom, where is the site lacking?’
Function (broken links, time outs, server failures etc) accessibility (even the basics like image text was missing on every page) and code quality (poor code, slows site / causes erratic display) – across each of these the site scored 0.

On performance, Argos recorded some of the poorest performance we have seen– worse page took over 47 seconds to respond (the time after you click and you wait for something to happen...) or when compared to Tesco, some 100 times slower.

In contrast to Argos’ poor performance, rival Tesco Direct moved up four places to fourth spot with a score of 5.2. Sainsbury’s also progressed four places up the table into 15th place, while Asda disappointed with a drop of two places to 19th spot.

Each of their scores leaves them some way off DFS that again scored an impressive 9.7 out of 10 to retain its top spot. The fact it is a non-transactional site has led some retailers to question whether it is fair to compare it with others in the top 50 that offer complex transactional propositions and that it is therefore no great surprise that it scores highly.

Shaw believes this completely misses the point and suggests that there is a stronger argument for transactional sites to perform better as they have more at stake and there is the risk of retailers losing sales from weak web propositions. In contrast, the likes of DFS that do not rely directly on their websites for sales have arguably less to lose from a poor performing website.

“It is a completely pointless argument to say that transactional sites can perform worse than those that do not sell products. Just think of how many potential sales are being lost through bad websites. Every broken link, slow loading page, lack of accessibility to visually impaired customers puts sales at risk. There is the strongest argument possible for saying transactional websites have to perform the very best out of all websites,’ argues Shaw.

Even though the likes of Argos, Mothercare, Halfords, Boots and Play.com will point to continued strong online sales to show the strength of their websites, the fact that Sitemorse places them all at the foot of the table this month suggests they could be driving even more sales online. “What exactly are these retailers leaving on the table?’ asks Shaw.

However, it is not all doom and gloom as regular poor performer Dixons has had a strong month, moving 17 places up the table to 30th spot with a score of 2.86, which compares with a score of 1.98 in January. HMV also did well, as the highest mover this month, with a jump of 18 places to 24th spot.

About Sitemorse

Sitemorse is the only solution available to provide complete end to end online protection (front point of content creation, through to continually monitoring) ensuring multichannel operations continue to deliver the very best, fully compliance online solution.

Unfortunately not everyone likes the accountability, or our capability in web estate testing and monitoring (brand, compliance, quality and performance) – in such a fast moving world, denial isn’t the best defence. Sitemorse is arguably as important to online operations as the spreadsheet is to business management.

glynnd@theretailbulletin.com

Further to Gareth’s pointers about how to improve the performance and quality of your website and his blogs on Google's musings about a website's speed affecting it's rankings. He thought a few more pointers about things to consider when looking at improving the speed of your Webpages might be helpful.

Full posting is at http://blog.sitemorse.com/2010/01/a-few-pointers-on-how-to-impro.html

After a bit of a spat with Sitecore, we leave you make up your own mind.....

Going by the front page of two of their key clients (one a winner of a Sitecore award, one a key reference client) after more than 3 months the broken links to terms / privacy were fixed - but accessibility isn't, so basics like images without alt text remain a major issue.

Real world examples, we urge a bit of care when the CMS vendors say 'we check it all don't worry'

Are you liable ?  What if your site’s not as good as you thought – Sitemorse AT NO CHARGE... If you are on Sitecore, email (email sales@Sitemorse.com, Subject – Sitecore free review) us for a review of your site and weeks access to the new in browser tool ‘Snapshot’ allowing editors to check as they publish – from the outside....not what the CMS thinks is there!

Accountability for accessibility issues - top brands, marketers, website mangers etc shouldn't be to blame, surely they are not going out of their way to not meet the standards?

If the provider (agency and or CMS vendor) tells you you are fully accessible, and the CMS provider says you cant publish anything that will contravene the guidelines, but there are failures (even at a basic level like ALT TEXT) who should be the one that is held to task?

The need to employ both manual testing and automated tools to ensure accessibility, usability and compliance is fully recognized and never disputed.

I'm looking at this from the point of view - not what is used / how the testing and monitoring is actioned, more if you are told its all been done - but it clearly hasn't (and im not talking technical detail, more basic items like no ALT TEXT on the accessibility statement page....).

We think there needs to be a change in mind set, and accountability - you will see what i mean with this example;
http://blog.sitemorse.com/2010/02/who-told-the-hiscox-cio-that-t.html

There are clear failures (issues for over a year) but the company, agency and the specialist testers all remain in a state of denial.

Follow on linkedin (Accessibility group members);

Well only live for a few days and the following seems to started rather quickly....

Recent couple of links with the blog are attracting some attention;

Who ends up in court - you or your CMS vendor/Design Agency ?

Who told the Hiscox CIO that their website was OK ?

What out for some developments around the Social Media Monitoring area very soon - unique bolt in that corporates / brand owners cant afford to be without.

http://twitter.com/sitemorse

Speed was identified as a key factor in Search Engine Optimisation for 2010 at a recent round table discussion in Manchester.

See further details on the Sitemorse blog

Confirming Google's recent findings that there is a direct correlation between Web site speed and business results, the panel of industry experts identified the speed at which Web site content is delivered as an increasing factor in improving user experiences.

I think it is a given that content is very important but now it is about the delivery of that content. I think Google is putting it higher up the search engine in its priorities and as far as I'm concerned it is about location, location, location - where the server is located and how ISPs can deliver that packet of information faster than anyone else.

Following on from Google's Matt Cutts' comments at the PubCon 2009 event, page load time was identified as an increasing concern in relation to Google's potentially changing priorities in 2010. With speed already a factor in the AdWords quality score and Google's increasing focus on it in relation to Chrome and Caffeine, faster Web sites were thought to be a future rankings winner.

Panelist and commercial director of High Position Terry Heffernan agreed: "By talking to our technical teams certainly we see that speed is going to be more important and it could be a window of opportunity."Speed is one of the elements of SEO but it is about fine-tuning the whole machine to deliver the best performance."

In addition to the speed at which content was accessed, the quality of the content itself was also credited as an essential SEO factor by the panel, which included Craig Stone from CSI Media, Tom Cheesewright, strategy director of And Digital, and Matt Rycroft, technical director of Oomagoo.

The use of social-networking and displaying richer, more varied content across a variety of channels was also thought to optimise business results and search rankings. Adopting a combined approach by using Twitter feeds, blog posts, press releases and video content was encouraged to achieve the ultimate universal search effect with links aiding customer flow.

Fundamentally, identifying and educating clients to understand that SEO is not simply a one-stop-shop but requires a multiple approach over time was collectively agreed to be the most effective way of climbing the Google rankings in 2010

Check the blog for updates on this article

Reduce File Sizes
You can find out the sizes of your files by looking at the "Site Inventory" page in your Sitemorse Audits or looking at the "Page assets" info of a SnapShot report and see the impact on performance by looking at the "Performance" info.

Use a HTML Compression tool
There are multiple methods of reducing the time it takes to send a file from the server to the client. Gzip is a compression tool used on servers to compress files in order to save those precious kilobytes. It is the most popular and effective compression method at this time, reducing the response size by about 70%. It can be used to reduce the size of any type of file, however as images and pdf files are already compressed, it is typically best not to attempt to compress these with gzip as there may be loss of quality and can potentially increase file sizes.

Don't Scale Images In HTML
Just because you can set the width and height of an image in HTML does not mean you should! If you want to display an image that is 100px wide and 100px high, then the image should be 100×100px rather than a scaled down 500×500px image! This will reduce the size of the image therefore make it load faster.

Optimise your CSS and JavaScript
Removing unnecessary code from JavaScript and style sheet files will reduce the file size, thereby improving load times. Minification takes this a step further by removing all comments, new lines, tabs and spaces. This improves response time as the size of the downloaded file is reduced drastically. A popular tool for minifying JavaScript code and CSS is YUI compressor.

Reduce Server Calls
You can find out the number of CSS and JavaScript files by looking at the "Site Inventory" page in your Sitemorse Audits or how many are on a particular page by looking at the "Page assets" info of a SnapShot report.

Combining style sheets (and JavaScript files for that matter) into as few files as possible will reduce the number of calls being made to the server. Combining files is more challenging when the style sheets and scripts vary from page to page, but the improvement in response times makes it well worth the effort.

CSS Sprites combine background images into a single image, reducing the number of image requests, and using CSS can show only the parts as desired using the background-image and background-position properties.

Script Locations
You can find out the sequence of how files are loaded by looking at the "Performance" info of a SnapShot report as well as seeing the impact they have on the page's load times.

Where you import your CSS and JavaScript can make a huge difference on how long a page takes to load, and how long it appears to take.

CSS At the Top
Moving style sheets to the HEAD makes pages appear to be loading faster as the page will render progressively. Not only is this stated in the HTML specifications, but by placing them near the bottom of the document, many browsers will be unable to render the page correctly as these browsers block rendering to avoid having to redraw elements of the page if their styles change.

JavaScript At The Bottom
Browsers are able to download from multiple sources at the same time (usually two downloads in parallel per host) allowing a page to load a smidgen faster. The problem with JavaScript is that they block these parallel downloads. Moving them to the bottom of the page gives everything else time to load. Sometimes this is impractical as some script may be needed in order to insert content into the page, for example if the script uses document.write. A work-around for this is to create a function at the bottom of the page and use an on-load command, where you want the content, to call a function when the page has finished downloading.

Flush
In PHP the function flush() allows a partially ready HTML response to be sent back to the browser. This is useful while the back-end is putting together the rest of the HTML page and is most noticeable on busy back-ends, where a script requires a lot of time to pull together a lot of resources and complete making the page before sending it to the browser. A good place to consider flushing is right after the HEAD as this is usually the easiest part of the page to create and allows the browser to start including any CSS and JavaScript files the browser requires while it waits for the rest of the HTML page, which the back-end is still constructing.

For example:
...<!-css, js->
</head>
<?php flush();?>
<body>
...<!-content->

Millions of pounds continue to be spent by organisations on their websites but the reality is that much of it is wasted as basic failings in quality and compliance are hampering performance and alienating customers.

The problem is that senior executives have to date largely relied on web providers to deliver their web presence whilst relying on the same suppliers to monitor and measure their own performance. Herein lays the rub.

Not only is it riddled with conflict, but evidence points to the fact that if could be in someone else's best interest to keep executives in the dark about any websites' failings. Could this also be being compounded with an internal culture of denial?

Boards in all sectors of the economy need to ask the relevant questions of their internal and external web providers to ensure they are not exposed, simply being told that everything is okay isn't sufficient. There needs to be a clear independent demonstration that quality and compliance standards are being continually met, risks are being assessed and the brand is protected - without any of the fluff or technical jargon only they understand.

Everyone who uses the Internet will have been frustrated by website failings but in many cases senior execs are continually told by their web suppliers that these problems are 'not on our site'. But if specialist website monitoring company Sitemorse continues to find the numerous issues on most sites then so will any other visitor.

The upside is that such issues are easy to address. Research from Sitemorse of the FTSE 100 companies found the key reason for website failures was simply a result of pages not being tested properly. Sixty two per cent of companies stated this as the key reason followed by 26% suggesting it was down to third-party failings and 12% stating it was unavoidable internal failures.

However, the typical senior executive is not keen to engage in discussions about problems related to the Internet and technology, which has led to them being exposed to receiving poor service from their providers. When executives do ask questions internally then there is often a lack of clarity about who is responsible for the organisation's web activities – whether it is internal individuals or the external agency that built the site.

The reality is that Sitemorse has run many website testing surveys on the UK and global retail sectors, the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 indices, and UK and US government sites over a period of eight years and has continued to find the most basic errors occurring on the majority of these websites. The myriad of problems encountered include the likes of draft versions of annual reports being accidentally posted online, investor relations email contacts not working, presentations missing, and claims about compliance that are simply wrong.

Insurance company Hiscox is an example of a major organisation that continues to suffer badly. Midway through 2009 the company made a big online push trumpeting the fact it now had the very best web presence, which it supported with lots of advertising and promotional activity.

Its senior executives and chairman felt sufficiently confident in the site that they made a statement about the positive impact the web would have on the future strategy of the company. 'Hiscox is committed to ensuring our online products and services are accessible to everyone, regardless of their ability. Providing an accessible website has a positive effect on general usability and we believe that websites that are accessible and usable benefit everyone,' it stated.

However, one of the basic requirements of the Internet, which is a legal requirement, is social inclusion and accessibility to visually impaired people and Hiscox failed badly here. Its home page made a mockery of the rules and regulations with untold numbers of errors. The areas indicated in blue in the image below highlight the failures against its stated policy of accessibility.

When challenged on the failings of its website, the company’s web agency brushed the problems aside with the predictable line of: 'there's nothing at all wrong with the site'. Efforts to engage directly with the chairman, including documented facts were rebutted.

Another typical example of a company that is experiencing ongoing problems with its website is retailer Mothercare. The testing of the UK's top 50 retailer websites has been undertaken by Sitemorse for a number of years and the baby and children's wear specialist has consistently featured at the bottom end of the table.

Having highlighted the specific basic problems to the company, which included broken links that prevented the ordering of its catalogue, and failed links to Mothercare's own jobs website the response has been a total denial of any errors.

The company preferred instead to seek opinion from other people within the industry in an attempt to cast doubt and re-interpret the findings in any way other than to admit that they have any problems with their website.

One assertion involved the dismissal of the problems as being a result of Sitemorse picking up old unused 'dead code' that could not be seen by consumers using the site. Since Sitemorse only reviews the code that can affect consumers using the site this argument is simply untrue. These problems are visible to all and will be encountered whenever the site is visited and can be demonstrated to Mothercare management.

This so-called dead code is the cause of many broken links and many other serious problems on the site whether the company agrees or not. Perhaps the preview, available at www.sitemorse.com/example/mothercare offers a clear indication of the areas of 'dead code' we are picking up and thwarts the continued 'nothing is wrong' argument.

The company has suggested it is demoralising for the internal web team to hear of the site's poor performance and its problems but what about the shoppers who are unable to buy goods because of the basic failings of the site? This must be very demoralising for them and also to the Mothercare management team who should be very disappointed by every lost potential sale. That is, if they have not been misled about the very existence of these problems.

Unfortunately this scenario is not unusual and there are many hundreds of other companies in the same position. Whereas a few websites operate without any function, performance and compliance problems and are well managed, at the other end of the scale there are many other examples where the scale of the problems need addressing.

Senior management teams are being let down badly from the insufficient levels of transparency between their companies and their web providers. The real issue is that the job of measuring and monitoring websites' is given directly to the suppliers themselves so they are effectively judging and critiquing their own work. This is clearly a conflict of interest.

While it is not recommended that the chief executive should check every web page, there has to be compliance undertaken that is independent and which continually validates and monitors websites to a sufficiently robust standard that it can stand up to an aggressive defence from the web providers and their attempts to sometimes mystify executives with complex technical details.

There needs to be a removal of this technical 'fog' that continues to be used by providers to prevent senior executives from getting down into the detail of their websites. What is needed is a change at the top of businesses whereby pertinent questions can be asked of internal and external web suppliers about quality and compliance.

The three key questions/recommendations to help organisations cut though the myriad of technical waffle, excuses and job protection from web suppliers are:

1. Ask providers (internal and or external) to demonstrate verification of their claims of quality and compliance, including the procedure to audit.
2. Prior to the procurement of any web-related services, ensure the Terms and Conditions of purchase clearly specify the conditions to comply with quality, performance, and compliance standards (covering the web, legislation and branding).
3. Recognition that websites do go wrong is essential (an internal denial culture hinders development) and the continuous monitoring of websites against an auditable level of key performance indicators (KPIs) should be implemented.

Organisations have KPIs for most aspects of their business that enable management to make accurate assessments but there are no such standards in place for measuring the basic operation of the websites in most corporations.

This has to change because it is simply unacceptable for businesses to continue to rely or entrust such an increasingly valuable medium as the Internet to an external supplier because inevitably it may not be in the interests of this third-party to be as thorough as they should be.

Pure play Play.com disappoints with weakest web performance

http://www.theretailbulletin.com, By Glynn Davis

To see the rankings click

The performance of the website of respected entertainment retailer Play.com has declined further this month to take it to the bottom of the table of the top 50 UK retail sites tested in November for The Retail Bulletin.

Its score of only 1.79 out of 10 led to its fall of seven places since last month and represents a poor performance for a pure play retailer that crucially relies entirely on its online store for sales.

The list of sites tested has been created jointly by The Retail Bulletin and specialist website testing company Sitemorse that used its automated testing of the first 125 pages of each retailer’s site to generate a ranked table.

Lawrence Shaw, CEO of Sitemorse, says: “The overall quality of the site has dropped even further this month with things like broken links, missing images and every page failing on accessibility. It has been in decline during the second half of the year and as a pure play retailer it simply can’t afford to be at the bottom.’

He points to its ‘function’ score (that includes broken links and emails not working) that had been nine out of 10 in April but fell to zero in September and has remained at this level for the past two months.

The significant problem is way the company has chosen to store data in the cookie on the website. When the cookie is sent back to the server it causes it to crash. Shaw says: “It’s a perfect example of a problem that would be difficult for retailers to detect but it is absolutely essential that it is corrected.’

He is keen to point out that the results delivered by Sitemorse are based on it testing a number of groups – function, accessibility, code quality, performance, email, SEO and metadata, analytics and PDF’s (documents) – which he says “removes all subjectivity’.

“It’s all about how good or bad is the web infrastructure and whether it delivers a good quality, strong performing, compliant web-user experience,’ he explains. What is also important is that all sites go through the same process, regardless of whether they are transactional or not.

“Arguably it is more important for transactional sites to perform better than those that are not used to sell goods as a poor experience can kill a sale and end that customer’s relationship with the retailer,’ says Shaw.

Although it is not transactional the DFS site continues to hold the top spot in the table with an impressive score of 9.5 out of 10. This is an improvement on last month’s 8.78 and places it almost three full points in front of second-placed La Senza and its 6.62.

“DFS is a good quality brand that is delivering a consistent message. The confidence in its messaging provides customers with confidence in its products,’ suggests Shaw.

The only two other retailers to score at least six out of 10 are Debenhams and Top Shop, which highlights to Shaw that the vast majority of companies in the list could do better. The Sitemorse view is that a decent score is 7.5 out of 10 and only DFS passes this threshold.

“All retailers can do better and it is easy for them to do better. They just have to get the basics right. The retail brands in Germany perform much better than their UK counterparts and on the criteria such as accessibility and function, UK retailers’ sites are also nowhere near as good as local government websites,’ he says.

With bad scores achieved by many of the most well respected retailers in the country, Shaw says there has been an unsurprising questioning of the Sitemorse findings. To counter this he says: “Any retail executives who have concerns over the scoring can have the details of the testing that has been undertaken on their site and a copy of the full findings.’

There have, however, been some improved performances, with Dixons steadily moving up the table. Its score of 2.86 pushed it up 12 places to 36th spot. Argos also had a great month, moving up 23 places to grab tenth spot in the table with a score of 4.44. This will be pleasing to the company as online is a crucial element of this multi-channel business and it will want to be firing on all cylinders as Christmas approaches.

Thorntons might not be quite as pleased with itself as it enters this crucial period - it was in 14th place two months ago but this month falls to 38th spot. For a retailer that has a strong focus on gifts this decline must represent a concern for management at this time of the year.

Customers visiting the world’s largest retailer’s E-Commerce site last week were able to look but not buy, thanks to what Wal-Mart described as “some unexpected technical issues that resulted in intermittent availability of checkout.’

Wal-Mart’s statement confirming the incident was vague—even by Wal-Mart standards—and Walmart.com spokesperson Ravi Jariwala declined to elaborate, saying “At this point, we’ve shared all the information we have to offer.’ Unknown details include when the glitch started, when it stopped, the nature of the problem and how many people were impacted.

For the full story click on this link to one of our news partners website

http://www.storefrontbacktalk.com/securityfraud/on-thursday-walmart-coms-check-out-didnt/

Just when is the best time to send out email marketing campaigns? According to Abi Clowes, Marketing Manager at Pure360, the best results can come when you least expect it.

Recent research by www.Pure360.com revealed consumers’ responses to email marketing campaigns change dramatically throughout the working day. Yet, the patterns that emerge are often counter-intuitive and marketers can’t rely on gut instinct if they want to get the most from their email marketing campaigns.

Marketing professionals shouldn’t allow themselves to be led astray by the media’s portrayal of a workforce that is taking advantage of work-based email and internet.

In fact, recipients are far more likely to open emails in their own time rather than at work. Almost half (48%) of all email marketing campaigns were opened outside office hours.

Many marketing professionals believe that lunchtime is the perfect opportunity to engage with their audience. But in reality the volume of email marketing campaigns opened actually drops markedly during the lunch hour.

A mere 9% of the emails we looked at were opened between noon and 2pm and sixty two per cent of those opened in this period were news or magazine alerts rather than promotions on goods or services.

Our research also indicated that marketers can capitalise on consumers’ desire for a ‘morning boost’ to engage with their audience. Employees are very receptive to consumer promotions, such as discounts on clothes, gadgets and events, at the beginning of the working day.

In contrast, it seems that job-related apathy may be leading employees to be more receptive to life-changing promotions mid-afternoon. During the well-documented post-lunch slump period (between 3pm and 5pm) people become more responsive to email marketing campaigns that address ‘the bigger picture’ and often more serious issues, whether that involves sorting out their finances, finding a new job or looking for a new property. Nearly 43% of all the financial services emails that were sent were opened mid-afternoon.

Based on our research, we identified patterns in consumers’ responses to different email marketing promotions throughout the day:

The Abyss (10pm to 9am)
This is an ineffective time to send email promotions – it’s akin to throwing them into a black hole.

Consumer AM (9am to 10am)
The second most prevalent opening time is at the beginning of the working day, when consumers allow themselves to be distracted by offers on clothes, live events, restaurants and consumer goods.

Do Not Disturb (10am to Noon)
Consumers are not opening email marketing campaigns, choosing instead to focus on work.

The Lunchtime News (Noon to 2pm)
Counter-intuitively, consumers are also unlikely to open email marketing campaigns during their lunch, choosing instead to spend time on news and magazine alerts.

In The Zone (2pm to 3pm)
In the immediate post-lunch period consumers remain focussed on work, responding mainly to email offers relating to financial services.

A Life-changing Afternoon (3pm to 5pm)
Job-related apathy sets in and consumers start thinking about their personal situation. As a result, more emails relating to property and financial services are opened between 3pm and 5pm than any other type of promotion.

‘Working Late’ (5pm to 7pm)
There is a dramatic rise in recipients opening holiday promotions during the period (17.9% of all emails promoting holiday promotions were opened in these two hours).

Last Orders (7pm to 10pm)
Recipients are more likely to respond to consumer promotions in their own time, with 23% being opened in this period.

The research reveals trends and opening times that marketing professionals should be aware of. The most effective email marketing campaigns will go that step further, looking at the behavioural patterns of individual recipients. Tools such as Intelligent Time Saving (ITS) enable marketing professionals to identify when individual recipients are most likely to respond to email marketing campaigns.

Everyone opens their emails at different times and professional marketers should use technology such as ITS to help them spot these trends. For the best result, marketers must endeavour to adapt their campaigns to suit the consumer’s individual needs.

Abi Clowes is Marketing Manager at progressive email marketing provider Pure360. Founded in 2001, Pure360 provides well known brands and businesses with the technology, know-how and support to run effective email marketing campaigns that have a measurable, positive impact on business. For more information, please visit www.Pure360.com

Extract from article, http://www.netimperative.com/news/2009/november/guest-comment-email-marketing-guess-work-just

Infocentric Research, a major provider for complex web solutions and research has entered a partnership with Sitemorse Switzerland, a leading provider of Website Auditing, Benchmarking and Certification services.

Infocentric will integrate automated Sitemorse tests and reports in their standard project procedure to ensure continuous delivery of highest quality products to their clients. Sitemorse will support Infocentric and their clients through its unique website auditing and monitoring services and will certify all new Infocentric projects. Also, Infocentric and Sitemorse will combine their expertise on specific research topics

“Through Sitemorse, we will offer our clients a significant value added service, and can provide them with an independent quality certification for each project we conclude. Sitemorse further offers us empirical data which will become an invaluable source for our research topics, where we are currently planning to develop a research report about Swiss Biosciences Websites.’ Dr. Thomas Frey, Managing Director Infocentric Research

Patrik Riebli, Managing Director Sitemorse Switzerland GmbH is excited about this first Swiss partnership, and in particular that a such a well respected player as Infocentric Research could be engaged.

About Sitemorse Switzerland GmbH
Sitemorse is a leading expert in website auditing solutions. Sitemorse checks compliance, measures performance and tests function of your websites, by reading content, checking code and reviewing infrastructure to reduce risk caused by on-line failure.

From single page monitoring to ongoing multi-site reviews and certifications, Sitemorse provides both management summaries and detailed technical reports (down to the line in the code). Sitemorse is operating in the Swiss Market since beginning of 2009 and has already won major clients in the banking industry.

About Infocentric Research AG
Infocentric Research AG is an independent research and consulting company. The company was founded in 2007 by several highly experienced professionals and is headquartered in Baden, Switzerland.

Infocentric Research AG
Stadtturmstrasse 10
CH-5400 Baden
Switzerland

Dr. Thomas Frey
Managing Director
skipper@infocentricresearch.com
www.infocentricresearch.ch
+41 56 210 0120

HMV moves up the chart, but should the book be thrown at Waterstone's?

HMV is the biggest climber in the October table of the top 50 UK retail websites in a month that has seen very few big swings, which suggests retailers are making only minor modifications to their online stores ahead of the vital Christmas period.

By Glynn Davis

The media retailer moved up 21 places to secure tenth spot with a score of 4.52 out of 10 whereas the rest of the table shows very few other moves of this magnitude unlike other months when the table’s constituents tend to be in a great state of flux.

The list of sites tested has been created jointly by The Retail Bulletin and specialist website testing company Sitemorse that used its automated testing of the first 125 pages of each retailer’s site to generate a ranked table.

The success of HMV has undoubtedly been down to the work undertaken to its website by its new web agency that has overhauled much of the proposition. A spokesman for HMV says this has involved enhancing the layout and richness of the content and more recently significantly improving the search engine functionality and navigation via Endeca.

Waterstone’s is the biggest faller of the month with a score of 2.16. This poor performance is strange as it is part of HMV Group, which suggests that the company swiftly undertake the same successful exercise with the book website as it has with its HMV site.

This is part of the group’s policy of constantly changing and evolving its web presence.
Lawrence Shaw, CEO of Sitemorse, says it is essential that websites are not “preserved in aspic’ and should instead be treated almost as living entities that react to changing customer demands and swiftly adapt to the changing use of the technology.

The rest of the top 10 shows very stable performances, with DFS retaining its place at the top of the table with an impressive score of 8.78, which significantly outperforms its 6.98 of last month.

A major disappointment, according to Shaw, is the continued lack of pure plays at the upper end of the table as only Net a Porter, in ninth place, is listed in the top 10. And in the top 20 it is joined by only one more pure internet retailer Firebox that sits in 19th places despite its fall of six places this month.

At the other end of the table there continues to be an over-representation of large multi-channel retailers including the perennial poor performers Dixons, WH Smith, Boots, eBay, PC World and Amazon. It is worrying that they all remain in these low positions at this stage of the year because it is unlikely that they will now be able to make sufficient changes to improve their websites in time for the Christmas rush.

This month, Mothercare is in the bottom spot with a score of 1.87 out of 10.

To see the rankings click here

Sitemorse will be giving free one to one website testing consultations at the Retail Bulletins’ Multi Channel Retail Conference – January 19th 2010. The consultations will be completely confidential and will give delegates the opportunity to benchmark their own websites. Registration to the conference is free to retailers. If you would like to book a private one to one consultation with Sitemorse then email Jane Hooper - janeh@theretailbulletin.com

Birmingham City Council's revamped corporate website has been named as the fastest improving in the UK, breaking into the top 20 overall in the process.

In comparison; Manchester (ranked 159 down 8), Nottingham (Ranked 421 down 49), Coventry (Ranked 240, down 45) Glasgow (ranked 411 down 10), Leeds (ranked 408 down 27), Liverpool (ranked 28 up 16), Newcastle Upon Tyne (ranked 309 down 90) and Solihull (ranked 201 down 81). Westminster, seen as the UK’s biggest earner... Is still way down the table at 373 (up 37 places this month)

The findings, announced by Sitemorse in the September 2009 local government survey, mean Birmingham has leapt 409 places to 20th in the rankings – after four consecutive months at the very bottom of the national league table.

Developed in partnership with Service Birmingham, running with FatWire's CMS, the new www.birmingham.gov.uk went live earlier this month and offers users a host of improvements across 17,000 pages of content, including an enhanced search engine and better disabled access. The improvement is the greatest recorded in the eight years that Sitemorse has ranked UK local authority websites and has taken Birmingham’s out-of-ten rating up from 0.9 to 7.89.

Cllr Paul Tilsley, Deputy Leader of Birmingham City Council, said: “To be ranked as the fast improving website in the UK is a hugely encouraging achievement. “It underlines how important and worthwhile the project to transform our website was and continues to be. “However, this is just the start of an exciting journey. We now have a web platform that will allow us to introduce many more planned improvements over the next few months including the creation of customer accounts that will enable citizens to track any query they make to the council.

“We will not take our eye of the ball because we want to ensure the council's enhanced web presence continues to be ranked amongst the very best nationally in the years to come.’

Lawrence Shaw, CEO of Sitemorse, added: “The technical performance of Birmingham City Council’s website has been completely turned around for the better. “The structure and management of the site has improved significantly – this result shows the council understands the importance of establishing a solid web platform that can be built on in the future.’

Editors Notes
1. Over 2,500 local and central government, FTSE and Bank clients are rated by Sitemorse to help them maintain error-free, fully functioning and compliant
(HTML/eGMS/Accessibility/brand) websites. Sitemorse also work with SOCITM (Society of Information Technology Management), and the organisation is also used by Gov. Sector Publishing, Global Retail Congress, Blays Netratings and ISPA for website ranking and awards services.
2. Business Transformation is Birmingham City Council’s ambitious nine-strand programme which aims to modernise and enhance services delivered across the whole authority to citizens. It is projected that the programme will realise benefits of around £1.5billion over the ten years to 2016.
3. Service Birmingham is a strategic partnership between Birmingham City Council and Capita which will support a transformation in the way the council works; improving services and contributing to its efficiency agenda. This strategic partnership forms part of the council's objective to find better and more innovative ways of delivering services for the benefit of employees and citizens. The principle of this joint venture focuses on the provision of cost effective, sector leading, ICT services and in supporting the council in achieving its business transformation objectives.
4. Customer First is one of nine programmes which make up Birmingham City Council’s ambitious Business Transformation programme, and will help deliver a range of improvements giving residents world-class standards of customer service. As part of the wider package, Customer First will provide simpler and easier ways of accessing council services, a single ‘0121’ telephone number to access all council services, a brand new user-friendly city council web site personalised for customers. Increased customer satisfaction is a key driver behind the programme.

For further information contact Kris Kowalewski on 0121 303 3621 at Birmingham City Council.