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

Business Wire, Oct 24, 2007

* Studies Conducted of Electronics Retailers and Online Books, Music, Movies and Games Retailers

* More Than 250 Customer Experience and 40 Service Level Metrics Captured for Each Site

* Amazon.com Ranked Number One in Online Customer Experience Across All Retail Studies

* Staples and Circuit City Ranked #1 in Service Levels in Consumer Electronics Industry

* Overstock Ranked #1 in Service Levels in Books, Music and Movie Industry

SAN MATEO, Calif. -- 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[R] 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[R] 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[TM], 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[R] 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.