Major name retailers continue to disappoint with the performance of their websites as shown by the results from the Q3 testing of the Retail 500 of top UK retailers' online stores, which shows a plethora of big operators scoring well below average.

By Glynn Davis

The full results are available at http://www.sitemorse.com/survey/report.html?rt=682&key=a1239cf1

In the bottom 50 worst performing sites there are some extremely big names including Boots, B&Q, Argos, Mothercare, Halfords, JD Williams, Phones 4u, Disney, Waterstone’s and Lastminute.com that all score less than 2.5 out of 10. This is well below the seven out of 10 that specialist website-testing company Sitemorse regards as a decent target for all retailers to aim for.

The testing of the 500 sites has been undertaken by Sitemorse that used its automated testing of the first 125 pages of each retailer’s sites to generate a ranked table based on checks to compliance, measurement of performance and the testing of the function of each of the websites.

The overall performance was down on Q2 when 30 retailers scored seven out of 10 whereas this quarter only 24 managed to reach this benchmark. Among this top 50 batch there is a smattering of large retailers, but what is noticeable is the high number of smaller merchants that are delivering strong online performances.

Lawrence Shaw, ceo of Sitemorse, says: “Giving the customer a superior online experience is not just the domain of the big guns and those able to commit large resources to their online channel. The numerous small retailers scoring well suggest that money is not the answer to doing well online but that it is more about being agile and constantly monitoring the sites and continuously making adjustments to them.’

This is clearly the strategy undertaken by DFS and Farmfoods that both stand unchanged at the top of the table with the former scoring an impressive 9.32 and the latter 9.10. Directly below them is a line-up that signifies the power of the smaller player with Vivi, Asprey, Scalextric, Sofa Workshop, Agent Provocateur and Suits You all scoring well.

The latter was among the largest rises in Q3, moving up 298 places to eighth spot with a score of 7.84. The other big mover in the top 50 was Early Learning Centre (ELC) that jumped 264 places to 33rd spot.

This makes it a massively better performer than its sister company Mothercare that languishes in 434th spot with a score of only 2.18. “It’s an excellent performance from ELC but it is rather surprising that the two sites perform so radically differently. It will therefore be interesting to see in the Q4 Retail 500 testing if they have more aligned scores, which would suggest an integrated approach being taken to the business,’ suggests Shaw.

In contrast the sister sites of Kingfisher Group - B&Q and Screwfix - both perform to similar levels. Unfortunately this is at a disappointingly poor level as they score only 2.30 out of 10, which places them well down in the table.

Among this batch of weak performers are a trio of new entrants to the bottom 50, with Levi Strauss falling 215 places to 453rd spot, Ryman slipping 228 places to 463rd spot, and QS Group collapsing by 433 places to 460th spot as it scored only 1.78 this quarter compared with a much more creditable 7.20 in Q2.

The final ranked table includes only 474 retailers because merchants were excluded from the testing if they used assistive technology such as JavaScript, which breaks the general “rules of accessibility’ of internet sites, according to Sitemorse.

Snapshot is for Content Editors, 'Non technical managers' and developers within organisations.

It's ideally suited to those organisations that have devolved responsibility for content out to end user departments following the adoption of a CMS. Snapshot allows these user to get an almost instant quality, performance and compliance "view" of the page they are working on.

Watch the movie and see it in action;http://www.sitemorse.com/snapshot-video.html?v=mothercare

To try at no charge please email sales@Sitemorse.com

Project Manager — £25k–£30k subject to experience, plus bonus

Job Description
This is a varied role, working from our London City office with the primary focus on ensuring our projects are managed effectively and efficiently, deadlines are met and individuals are kept up to date. In return for your hard work and impact you have on the business we will offer flexible working conditions, an open team environment, competitive salary and the opportunity to progress.

You'll be bright and enthusiastic, but have an eye for detail and a track record of being thorough; clear and concise communications capability must also be part of your day to day norm. Excellent English (both written and spoken) is a prerequisite, as are understanding of Online Systems, and MS Office.

The role involves the management of both internal and external projects - e.g. sector research, enterprise client roll-outs, internal marketing, Survey (Index) publication, etc.

Office attendance hours can be flexible - opening up the role to those needing to work around the requirements of childcare.

Application process
We take a partnership approach to recruitment because we want it to be a good fit for both parties. We realise it's as much an investment of your time as it is of ours, so feel free to call us if you have any initial questions. For this role the following will be required:

1. Head to our website and get a feel for what we do — www.Sitemorse.com
2. Send us a copy of your CV and a cover letter explaining why you want the job and your relevant experience to hr29@sitemorse.com.
3. If successful, we'll arrange a telephone interview with you for a chat
4. Then we'll invite you in for a discussion about your experience plus a written assignment (we need an excellent standard of written English)
5. In the third interview, you'll get to meet the team and cover off any remaining questions.

Recruitment Agencies may NOT contact us regarding this position.

Paul Bidder is recognised as a key speaker around one of the fastest growing sectors of the Internet ‘Social Media’. He is well versed and is seen a leading figure, his workshops and seminars regularly achieving ‘standing room’ only.

His company have recently completed their first in a series of papers, offering guidance and their own thoughts. This paper aims to demonstrate what is involved in a holistic digital strategy, from putting together initial aims, targeting audiences, generating ideas and evaluating campaigns, within Social Media.

His paper covers off some of the basic building blocks (sometimes overlooked) organisations, across both the private and public sector should ensure they have in place, as well as detailing how and where Social Media can successful fit within the online mix.

His paper is available (at no charge); http://www.redant.co.uk/insight/blogs/Planning-and-Creating-a-Digital-Strategy

Paul’s email address, if you have any questions; Paul.Bidder@redant.co.uk.

Every wondered how you actually prove what you said, online; at a specific point in time and be able to demonstrate exactly what was on any web page?

Where will Record and Retrieve support you (e.g.);

- A dispute around your terms and conditions
- You are challenged in relation to content / imagery on your site
- Evidence is required that appropriate disclaimers have been in place and are available on a site
- An asset index of document files is required & you need to prove editable files are not available online
- Regulatory body notice, and you need to prove content adjusted / removed

We are offering 10 'pre-release' licensees for the service, if you would like to join the preview programme please email Richard Seekins, rseekins@Sitemorse.com

Top website scoring 9.72 is Aberdeen. Hertsmere came bottom scoring just 2.00. Birmingham was the greatest faller, dropping 279 places scoring 4.06. The most Improved site was West Somerset (+328), rank 67, scoring 6.70

The report is available from WTG's website - please visit www.wtg.co.uk/en/Campaigns/LGSurveyJune10

The 6 sites that failed accessibility A and AA on every page were;
* Devon
* East Ayrshire
* Norfolk
* Selby
* Stockport
* Walsall

At what is a very challenging time for organisations across the public sector, with budget cuts and increased pressure to do “more with less’, the performance of your website is more key than ever. A website that functions perfectly, performs consistently and complies with all legislation, provides the perfect platform for provisioning citizen services online, improving efficiency and reducing cost.

* Website with most functional failings was West Sussex
* The poorest code quality was at St Albans 61,163 failures
* Overall the site with the fastest response time was Newry and Mourne

In all we carried out 301,030,145 tests - testing function, checking compliance and measuring performance - reviewing the page content, code and delivery infrastructure.

Jane's Police Review magazine featured the release of the Quarter 1, UK Police Force Index (available at http://www.sitemorse.com/survey/index.html?t=5)

The article, by Tom Bovingdon provides a great summary of the findings - copies of printed report are available from Coolpink, Alterian and WTG (details below)

http://www.policereview.com/public/jpr/index.html

www.coolpink.net
Mark Bower (sales@Coolpink.net)

www.alterian.com
Emily Nicholls (Emily.Nicholls@alterian.com)

www.wtg.co.uk
Daniel Hoy (Daniel.Hoy@wtg.co.uk)

Snapshot is a great tool for Content Editors and Webpage developers within organisations. It's ideally suited to those organisations that have devolved responsibility for content out to end user departments following the adoption of a CMS.

Have a look at the blog http://blog.sitemorse.com/mt/mt-search.cgi?search=snapshot&IncludeBlogs=1

Snapshot allows these user to get an almost instant "view" of what Sitemorse thinks about the page they are working on. Having populated a page with content via the CMS they will then look at the how the page looks via a browser, if they are happy with the look of the page they can simply click on the "Instant Snapshot" button in the browser toolbar. Sitemorse will check the page and present the results

In the next two weeks we will be releasing the full results from the Q2 local government website index survey (produced in association with WTG).

At what is a very challenging time for organisations across the public sector, with budget cuts and increased pressure to do “more with less’, the performance of your website is more key than ever.

A website that functions perfectly, performs consistently and complies with all legislation, provides the perfect platform for provisioning citizen services online, improving efficiency and reducing cost.
Congratulations go to those who have understood the importance of their web site and invested appropriately to achieve very high scores.

This quarter we are teaming up with WTG, one of the leading online solution providers in the public sector to provide the survey. If you would like to receive an advance copy of the full survey please contact Daniel.hoy@wtg.co.uk or visit www.wtg.co.uk/en/Campaigns/LGSurveyJune10.

Major name retailers fell further down the table of top 50 websites tested for The Retail Bulletin in April, which is a problem because as online growth begins to slow these retailers will have to address the issues that are dragging down their websites.

Access the full table here

By Glynn Davis

In the bottom 10 WH Smith, Halfords, eBay, Play.com, Boots, IKEA and JD Williams all fell while Waterstones and Mothercare remained in the same lowly positions propping up the table.

This is a serious situation because as online sales growth starts to slow it will be increasingly important for retailers to hang on to their existing customers. And this will only be possible through improved customer experience online.

Tony Stockil, chief executive of Javelin Group, stated at the recent BRC Multi-channel conference that “the early rapid growth phase is over’ and that retailers must now concentrate on better serving their existing most valuable customers.

Lawrence Shaw, CEO of Sitemorse, says: “The worst way to serve your customers is having a site that falls down on many of the fundamentals like broken links, accessibility and slow page downloads. The problem is that this is exactly what many of the websites from the largest retailers suffer from. This is a sure-fire way of losing your existing customers.’

The table this month showed that while the bottom 10 retailers become further adrift, the top 10 seem to be pulling away from the rest of the pack. Among this top flight there were only two fallers – Currys and Harvey Nichols – whereas two stayed in the same place and six moved upwards.

The biggest riser among the top 10 was Comet that moved up 11 places to fourth spot, which highlights a trend for improved performance among the electricals retailers. As highlighted in the March rankings, all three DSGi websites performed strongly.

PC World and Dixons both moved further up the table this month while Currys slipped back two places. This represents a massive improvement on what had been long-term underperformance from the DSGi websites.

This change in fortunes is down to the efforts of David Walmsley, who has been the director of e-commerce at DSGi since October. As part of the group’s Transformation Programme Walmsley had been tasked with improving the online business with a complete overhaul of all three online businesses – Currys, Dixons and PC World.

Walmsley told Retail Bulletin that there had been significant change and that the last piece involved re-launching the sites in February on a new e-merchant platform. “This brings us up to the starting line and we can create a more compelling shopping experience. It’s about good online shop keeping – no broken links, correct prices, checkouts working,’ he says.

He added that there was recognition in DSGi that it needed to take advantage of its scale and its multi-channel proposition. It had for some years been falling prey to the superior online stores of a myriad of smaller online-only competitors.

With its revamped multi-channel proposition, the business will now be able to benefit from the increased customer loyalty that having multiple channels provides retailers.

Laura Wade-Gery, chief executive of Tesco.com, believes this increased loyalty helps directly boost profitability, which has been an issue for online retailers. This was why she says there are still very few quoted online-only retailers - Asos being a rare example.

Although Tesco Direct dropped four places this month it still remains in the top 10, in eighth place, with a score of 4.84 out of 10. This is some way above Asos in 23rd place that scores only 3.40.

This poor performance from Asos is not unusual among the online-only players who Shaw says amazingly continue to under-deliver on their website performance despite this being their only channel to market.

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. If you would like more information, to talk about your position in the rankings or to find out how to improve your websites performance contact mhiggins@sitemorse.com

WTG announces the strategic partnership with Sitemorse, the market leading provider of automated website testing and benchmarking solutions. This partnership will bring their combined solutions to WTG’s central and local government customers.

Sitemorse provides a unique solution that guarantees to improve the quality, compliance and Search Engine Optimisation of any website. This includes improved online experience, reduced reputational and legal risk, ensuring brand standards are upheld and Intellectual Property is protected.

“The web is playing an increasing role in everyday interactions between citizens and the government. No longer are public sector websites simple information repositories, they provide a new, more cost effective channel through which people can engage and interact with various local and central government bodies,’ said Lawrence Shaw, CEO, Sitemorse. “It is therefore, becoming even more important, to ensure that a website’s performance is monitored and that any technical issues that might impact the visitor’s experience are quickly remedied.’

“By combining WTG’s knowledge and experience in delivering effective online solutions to government organisations with Sitemorse’s award winning tools, our customers can be confident that their websites are providing the highest levels of online service,’ said Jamie Melling, MD, WTG. “In addition we can provide customers with the reassurance that their websites meet the highest technical standards both in the short and longer term.’

Through this partnership, WTG customers will benefit from ‘web confidence’. The confidence that their websites are functioning correctly, the confidence that they meet accessibility standards and the confidence that they perform at peak levels for all visitors.

“WTG is a leading technology consultancy and online solutions provider to the UK Public Sector, specialising in the design, build and management of web applications, designed to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs and enable effective delivery of a Gov 2.0 strategy.’

www.wtg.co.uk

Tel: +44 207 339 8600
Email: info@wtg.co.uk

Sitemorse will shortly be releasing our new Javascript testing, offering our clients the unique ability to automatically check the Javascript that their sites rely upon.

As part of this process, we would like to request volunteers for pre-release testing this new module and its functionality. Testers will be given free advance access to the Javascript diagnostics, in return for completing a short questionnaire asking for their opinions and suggestions.

If you would like access to the beta-testing programme, please contact Gareth Evans (gevans@Sitemorse.com)

Liberal Democrats rise in the polls (this quarter highest climber overall) as Labour languish further towards the bottom (number 385 of the Central Gov Websites Rankings). Does this bode well for their promise to bring the internet to all and roll out a successful online Britain – when they can't even get the basics of their own website in place?

The Lib Dems' move has pushed them up to 37th place with a score of 6.23 out of 10, which compares with a lowly 2.78 for the Labour Party sliding to 385th spot in the Q1 2010 table of 400+ websites. The Conservative Party does a little better with a score of 4.54 that places 187th.

Holding the top spot again this quarter is the website of Directgov Jobs and Skills with an impressive score of 9.82, which compares with the disappointing 1.21 out of 10 for bottom-placed Youth Justice Board for England and Wales. The FCO also makes its first appearance in the top 10, rising some 294 places.

Lawrence Shaw CEO of Sitemorse commented “As we move nearer to the general election, surely its time for political parties to embrace the power of the web – remembering that winning 'online' was cited as a key success factor in the election of Barack Obama to President in the US’

The report is produced by Sitemorse, in partnership with Alterian (www.alterian.com). The detailed findings are available at http://www.sitemorse.com/rt/639

About Sitemorse

Sitemorse offers independent, authoritative software to ensure the quality, compliance, performance, availability and compatibility of your web estate. Sitemorse is delivered as (Software as a Service) SaaS using web 2.0 technology and doesn't require any client setup or management.

Sitemorse covers the point of web production, ITT / Vender verification, migration, UAT / pre-launch requirements and ongoing monitoring thereafter. Delivering ongoing web confidence to our clients, minimising their risk from online failure or brand dilution and alerting them to potential litigation exposure.

March Rankings of Top 50 Retail Websites

DSGi websites power up the league table of leading online stores but HMV group continues to slide

DSGi has had an impressive month with all three of its brands moving strongly up the March Top 50 UK retail websites Index, with both Currys and PC World now in the top 10.

Currys has moved up 36 places to fifth spot with a score of 5.3 out of 10, PC World has gone from 37th to ninth place, and Dixons has progressed 19 places to 11th spot in the table. This represents something of a turnaround as the DSGi brands have been perennial poor performers.

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.

Lawrence Shaw, CEO of Sitemorse, says: “We’ve been very critical in the past of how disappointing it has been that a technology retailer should have such dire websites. But this month shows that that DSGi has clearly been placing a greater focus on delivering a better customer experience online. Maybe we are finally seeing the results of the efforts of chief executive John Browett who has stated his commitment to online being a key element of the company’s strategy.’

There have been no other serious table-climbers this month and very little change at the top, with DFS maintaining its premier spot and La Senza and Top Shop completing the top three.

In contrast, there have been some major fallers with Debenhams dropping 19 places to 28th spot, Carphone Warehouse slipping 23 rungs to 40th place, and HMV declining 20 places to 44th spot.

When you consider that HMV’s sister site Waterstone’s fell one place to move into the bottom spot with a score of only 1.36 it has clearly been a bad month for HMV Group. Much work is needed if the group is to deliver on chief executive Simon Fox’s aim of the business being a true multi-channel operation. “It is a long way off delivering on this, judging by this month’s performances,’ says Shaw.

Such have been the paltry scores achieved by Waterstone’s in the Sitemorse tests over the past year that it cannot have been that much of a surprise to anybody when the book seller’s managing director Gerry Johnson was jettisoned in January and replaced by Dominic Myers.

One of the key areas of poor performance that continues to dog many retailers is accessibility for visually impaired people, which is surprising as it is a legal obligation for all websites in the UK. Worryingly eight sites fail basic web accessibility on every page tested by Sitemorse – Ann Summers, Boots, B&Q, Firebox, Harrods, Play.com, Staples and Thorntons.

Sitemorse ITT Support / Vendor Verification helps to address the question those procuring web services face “they all tell me how good there services and systems are – how or where can I go for independent, consistent verification?’.

What will it do for you?
Until you know what's online, planning migration or any remedial action is near impossible, our discovery phase (1-1,000+ domains) will advise you;
- How easy is it to really use?
- Does the system really support the features described?
- Provide a benchmark and a basis to monitor project delivery
- Against Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) – how are we doing?

We are offering a limited time offer - 'try the service AT NO CHARGE' email sales@Sitemorse.com for details.

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.