News

Gomez launches Retail User Experience Index

November 29, 2010

Gomez, the web performance division of Compuware Corp., has introduced the Gomez Retail UX (User Experience) Index. The UX Index is a view into the aggregate performance of major Web and mobile applications. The UX Index also predicts online shoppers' satisfaction or frustration during a critical shopping period — Black Friday through Cyber Monday.

The Gomez Retail UX (User Experience) Index provides an hourly score based on the aggregate Web and mobile performance of the Top 15 U.S. retail websites, the Top 15 U.S. mobile sites and the Internet Retailer Top 500 U.S. Web retailers. The index provides:

• hourly site performance trending data during a peak usage period (Black Friday through Cyber Monday) compared to a performance baseline during a non-peak period;
• a comparison of the performance of websites vs. mobile sites vs. the Internet Retailer Top 500 during this peak usage period;
• intraday trending data for how sites are performing, demonstrating how performance is impacted as shopping activity increases during peak usage periods; and
• a single UX Index score for Web and mobile performance taking into account response time, availability and consistency.

The Gomez Retail UX Index score is based on the Apdex scoring methodology for Web performance, which provides a way of estimating user satisfaction or frustration. The UX Index indicators measure the current performance of aggregated Web and mobile sites vs. the baseline and are defined as:

• red: a significant decline in the number of satisfied users relative to the baseline (greater than a five-point drop in the UX Index);
• yellow: a decline in the number of satisfied users relative to the baseline (a drop of five points or less in the UX Index); and
• green: more or the same number of satisfied users relative to the baseline (in-line or better than normal).

"Retailers are in heated competition during this peak holiday shopping period to provide fast, well-performing sites because experience has shown that impatient online shoppers will abandon slow-loading, poor performing sites," said Matt Poepsel, VP of Performance Strategies, Gomez. "We created the Gomez Retail UX Index to provide insight into the direct correlation between Web and mobile application performance and the impact on online shoppers' level of satisfaction or frustration with their online experiences. Top performers will capture their share of this year's online revenues, but the impact for poor performers is frustrated and dissatisfied customers that will not only spend less time on their sites, but also buy less or simply head to a competitor's site."