Saturday, December 9, 2000

Pre-Holiday Shopping Creates Strong Presence

Online holiday shopping began early this year, as home Internet users went to Internet retail sites in significant numbers during November, according to PC Data Online’s latest Top 100.

With over 26 million unique users, amazon.com was the top web retail site, while walmart.com, bestbuy.com, half.com and cdnow.com all increased significantly from the previous month. Walmart.com’s traffic increased 169 percent from 2.4 million unique users in October to 6.7 million unique users in November. Bestbuy.com had a 98 percent increase with seven million unique users from 3.5 million the previous month. Half.com and cdnow.com had traffic increases of 33.2 percent and 18.7 percent respectively.

“Holiday shopping started early this year. Home Internet users gravitated toward what they know – amazon.com and other recognized online and offline brands,” said Jeff Moulton, Internet analyst for PC Data Online. “Online consumers are aware of the shortages of 1999 and are getting an early start to make sure their gifts are in stock and delivered on time.”

PC Data, a leading Internet research firm that specializes in Web commerce measurement, compiles a monthly list of the top web sites, based on “unique users” that visit the site. The list is based on a proprietary software tool that tracks visitors and buyers on each Website.

The Presidential election likewise increased news site traffic in November. With 15 million unique users, Cnn.com climbed from No. 46 in October to No. 24, a 58 percent increase. Abcnews.com moved from No. 156 to No. 91 with 6.5 million unique users, up 51 percent. Msnbc.com increased traffic 29 percent with 15 million unique users, climbing from No. 34 to No. 25, and cnet.com at No. 26 had a more modest 2.3 percent increase with 14.4 million unique users.

“People are no longer limiting themselves to television and newspapers as their primary sources for news,” Moulton said. “The dynamics of this past Presidential election spurred online users to become more proactive and timely in their news gathering, and the Internet enabled them to get specific news they wanted without wading through the clutter.”

In other areas, the sweepstakes category lost some traffic during November with the exception of grab.com and jackpot.com, which increased traffic by 65 percent and 4 percent respectively. At the No. 12 slot, grab.com had 20 million unique users and jackpot retained the No. 76 position with 71.6 unique users.

Other sites new to the Top 100 in November were finance site were gambling site prizecrazy.com (unranked to No. 38), aria.com (from No. 172 to No. 77), entertainment site disney.com (from No. 114 to No. 83), science news site discovery.com (from No. 106 to No. 84), music site netbroadcaster.com (from No. 164 to No. 87), entertainment site sony.com (from No. 135 to No. 89), amusement site twistedhumor.com (from No. 110 to No. 90), marketing site adultrevenueservice.com (from No. 147 to No. 96), game site ign.com (from No. 103 to No. 99), and software publisher site ea.com (from No. 107 to No. 100).

Link Found Between Employee Turnover and Customer Satisfaction
Unifi Network, a division of PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Roper Starch Worldwide, Inc., has announced the results of a joint study that examines the impact of employee turnover on customer satisfaction within six different industries. In each case, the results show a strong link between employee retention and quality of service as rated by the customer.

"Recent changes in the workforce have brought the issue of employee retention to the forefront for many companies. An increasingly fast-paced world, the emergence of innovative technologies, new workforce attitudes and a drop in the birth rate have caused turnover and recruitment cycles to skyrocket across many industries," according to Tom Casey, the leader of Unifi Network's Talent Management Practice. "The negative effects of the increase in employee turnover are no longer being felt exclusively by the human resource managers. It is apparent that consumers are directly impacted by turnover as well. As a result, turnover is now a principal concern of CEOs because it directly affects the bottom line."

A total of 3,005 interviews were conducted online and facilitated by an existing partnership between Roper Starch Worldwide and America Online. Consumer respondents were qualified by having had recent service encounters in at least one of six target industries: personal computing, banking, retail, telecommunications, investment management or property and casualty insurance.

The survey results illustrate a direct correlation between perceived employee turnover rates and customer satisfaction, leading to customer retention or defection. Overall, more than 60 percent of the respondents were less than satisfied with the service they received from companies in one or more of the target industries. Additionally, more than 80 percent of the respondents perceive employee retention as a problem within the six industries surveyed. Twice as many respondents said that personnel issues are a challenge facing their service providers than said that product or price issues are a problem, a factor service providers must consider when seeking to secure and retain customers.

Across all six industries, on average only 20 percent of the participants say their service provider would be a good company to work for. One in three consumers cite employee turnover as a significant and even crucial factor in examining quality-of-service delivery. The study also found that for all six industries consumers consider low employee continuity and training as problems that impede their ability to get high-quality service. Fifty-seven percent of survey respondents identified poor employee training as a leading aspect of service deficiencies, while only 20 percent were satisfied by their service provider's ability to retain their best employees.

The Unifi/Roper survey also found that less than 40 percent of the participants are highly committed to their existing service provider. The telecom and banking sectors have the least committed customer base, with only 36 percent and 29 percent giving high commitment ratings, respectively.

"On average, Unifi Network's study suggests that where customers perceive little difference in product and price among companies they purchase from, they are apt to differentiate on customer service," added Mr. Casey. "Survey respondents cited personnel issues as their principal concern in maintaining confidence in the service providers they patronize."

News Tidbits (appears every day on front page)
- How does an investment company know to keep a buy rating on an Internet company like Amazon.com? Well, if you're Credit Suisse First Boston then you send in undercover employees to work temporary at the company in order to get a more inside look. According to Reuters, two people working for Credit Suisse First Boston signed up for a temp agency assigning workers to Amazon.com and were hired. After a short stay they quit and filed a report with Credit Suiesse First Boston who reiterated its "buy" rating.

- The daily dot com layoff report continues. Flashcom has laid off 105 employees and has even sold some of its customer database information (a privacy "no-no") in order to stay afloat.