silicon.com e-tail survey: Clicks beat bricks for Christmas

The first results from the silicon.com e-tail survey show amazon.co.uk has the fastest online buying time with the average transaction taking just one minute. Bol.com's UK site comes in a close second with an average buying time of 82 seconds.

Consumers buying presents from rival online sites WHSmith and Virgin Megastore are taking much longer, spending between 3.5 and 4.5 minutes per purchase.

The figures from web monitoring company Mercury Interactive, released exclusively to silicon.com, show the average time it takes to purchase one copy of the bestselling book or CD from each site, starting at the homepage and continuing to credit card validation - assuming the buyer doesn't accept cookies and isn't registered with the site.

Since measurement began on 4 December, over 11 per cent of total transactions on the ten sites being monitored have failed and almost 40 per cent have taken over three minutes to complete. Mercury has conducted over 10,000 transactions since monitoring began.

Kate Kennedy, joint-MD of WHSmith Online, admitted the company is aware it has problems with speed. "We have recognised some of this ourselves," she said, "on occasions it can be slow."

"Visits and traffic have been a lot higher than average... and with the smooth comes the rough. It may not be the fastest site in the world but its very important to keep the system stable," she added.

Kennedy added she has been happy with WH Smith Online's overall performance so far this year, adding that the retailer will look again at design and performance in the New Year.

One transaction on amazon.co.uk at lunchtime on 11 December took over 30 minutes to complete. But the American bookseller also holds the record time for the shortest transaction - 32 seconds to buy a copy of its latest bestseller.

The ten sites being monitored are:
amazon.co.uk
bol.com
etoys.co.uk
hmv.co.uk
jungle.com
streetsonline.co.uk
waterstones.co.uk
whsmith.co.uk
woolworths.co.uk
virginmega.com

silicon.com also wants to hear from you about your online buying experiences - have you had problems or are the complaints out of proportion? Or do you just not bother buying online at all?

Send the best and worst of your e-tailing experiences to: editorial@silicon.com

For more information on Mercury Interactive, visit http://www.mercuryinteractive.co.uk