Christmas e-tailers put under the spotlight

Forrester Research is predicting that over six million British shoppers will buy online this Christmas - but will retail sites hold up better than they did last year or will consumers have to wait until the middle of January for their gifts to be delivered?

In partnership with internet monitoring specialist Mercury Interactive we'll be testing the responsiveness of the UK's top ten retail sites to find out how well they perform under pressure.

Mercury's testing software enables us to conduct regular transactions on the ten sites, buying one copy of the bestselling book or CD each time. And, just as any normal consumer would give up and go elsewhere, if the transaction takes too long then the site receives a 'fail'.

Already, in the first two weeks of December, 13 per cent of the overall transactions have failed and another 30 per cent have been extremely slow.

We'll also be making sure each retailer can keep to its promises - checking how long it takes to process, package and deliver the item.

The ten sites under the microscope 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 do you believe the complaints are 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 see:
http://www.mercuryinteractive.co.uk