Compuware Benchmark Finds Gap In Web Performance Among Credit Card Issuers

DETROIT -- Compuware Corp. Tuesday announced the launch of new Web site performance benchmarks for the credit card industry. According to the U.S. Credit Card Last Mile benchmark results for September, Web site page load time ranged from 3.7 to 14.8 seconds, revealing a wide gap in website performance among the top credit card issuers.

According to a comScore online credit card report, 76 percent of cardholders have logged on to an account from their issuer's Web site. With more cardholders considering issuer Web sites as their leading method for engagement, providing satisfying online customer experiences has never been more important. A key component in providing an exceptional customer experience is providing fast and reliable Web site performance.

The U.S. Credit Card Last Mile benchmark measures performance from the end user's desktop taking into account the impact of bandwidth, content delivery networks, and local Internet Service Providers. The Compuware Gomez Last Mile Benchmarks leverage the Gomez Global Performance Testing Network of more than 150,000 desktop computers connected to 2,500 local ISPs in over 168 countries around the globe. Other benchmarks for the credit card industry include the U.S. Credit Card transaction benchmark and the U.S. Credit Card home page benchmark which has been expanded to include six new participants.

"Research from Forrester revealed that credit card providers have one of highest correlations between customer experience and loyalty. If you provide a good customer experience, your customers will continue to use your card for future purchases. If your customer experience is poor, your customers will switch their business to a competitor," said Jonathan Ranger, Gomez Benchmark Practice Director at Compuware. "Web site performance is a critical piece in providing top customer experiences and satisfaction for credit card issuers."

Gomez Benchmarks are an impartial, quantitative measurement of comparative web and mobile site performance and rank the web and mobile performance of companies across three key metrics:

* Response time -- measures the time elapsed while downloading a page or an entire multistep transaction process.
* Availability -- measures the percentage of successfully completed tests out of total test attempts for the measurement period.
* Consistency -- measures the standard deviation of the response time of successful tests completed.

Benchmarks are used by organizations to compare and track performance against competitors and market leaders; baseline and track performance over time; and as key indicators of success for business and IT site owners. Gomez publishes hundreds of global web and mobile performance benchmarks based on more than 20 million monthly tests across 3,000 companies in 13 countries and include:

Learn more at: www.compuware.com.