Web Analysts to Supply Benchmarking Data

US-based WebSideStory has launched a new e-commerce benchmarking service, offering clients free access to data based on the performance of hundreds of online retailers. Companies will be able to compare their own key performance indicators against industry and category averages.

The service provides comparison metrics - from checkout start rates to new and repeat visitor conversion rates - for five e-commerce categories including apparel, toys, computers, sports and leisure.

The aggregated data comes from a representative sample of the hundreds of retailers using the company's HBX Analytics service. The web sites in the sample generate nearly $3 billion in annual transactions.

The company uses the benchmarking data as part of its consulting services. 'One of the first things we do is compare how a particular client stacks up against the rest of the industry on a variety of key metrics,' explains Warren Raisch, WebSideStory's Senior VP of Professional services. 'For example, if we see that an apparel retailer has a site search conversion rate of much less than 8.8% (the industry average), then we know that's a good place to focus our initial efforts.'

The company, which has headquarters in both California and the Netherlands, is online at www.WebSideStory.com.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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