Significant improvements in the reliability of top online retailers’ websites continued again this Monday, as shoppers descended on the internet for a £350 million Christmas shopping bonanza.

Of the thirteen in Keynote Systems‘ basket of top retailers, eight managed 100% site availability — Argos, Bhs, Debenhams, Hamleys, House of Fraser, Play, Selfridges and Tesco Direct. Amazon managed an uptime of only 98.64%, John Lewis was close behind with 98.61% and Toys R US had a site availability of 98.17%. HMV at 97.33% and Littlewoods, trailing at 93.67%, were at the bottom of the site availability list.

Selfridges was again the top retailer in terms of site response times with an average time of just 0.97 seconds. It was followed by Bhs at 1.26 seconds, Argos at 1.55s, Toys R Us at 1.57s and Debenhams at 1.78s. They were followed by Hamleys at 1.82s, Littlewoods at 1.99s, Tesco Direct at 2.0s and House of Fraser at 2.06s. Amazon, with an average response time of 2.38 seconds, John Lewis with 2.65s and Play’s 2.77s came next and HMV was at the bottom of the list, again, with an average response time of 4.73 seconds.

“Seven sites were available in less than two seconds which is impressive given the estimated volume of traffic,” says Keynote. “Selfridges achieved an impressive download time of 0.97 seconds and also had 100% availability, making it the best performing site on Monday.”

“This year’s Cyber Monday results suggest that retailers have paid more attention to web site performance than they did over the same period in 2008,” says Keynote’s Carina Hoogeveen. “With eight sites achieving 100% availability on the UK’s busiest online shopping day, it is clear that there has been a concerted effort made for improved online customer service.”

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