Some Websites Changing Rules Of E-Commerce

Amazon.com [NASDAQ:AMZN], Cisco Systems [NASDAQ:CSCO] and Land's End [NYSE:LE] are among the companies that got high marks for creating Websites that blend profits with customer loyalty, in a new report on Web innovators who are changing the rules of online commerce.

The report - released by Peppers and Rogers Group, a consulting firm specializing in one-to-one marketing - also gave nods to Dell Computer, online grocer Peapod, S&P Personal Wealth, Ticketmaster Online, the Wall Street Journal and online investor E*Trade. Peppers and Rogers reviewed 51 Websites culled from 500 sites nominated by readers of the firm's electronic newsletter.

Online bookseller Amazon ranked number one on the list for its recommendations system based on a customer's past purchases. "What's remarkable about this system is that it even recommends CDs and videos with surprising accuracy, even if you've purchased only books from Amazon in the past," the report stated. Amazon also took seventh-place honors for its "1-Click" ordering system, which stores shipping and billing information about customers and enables them to order items with one click of the mouse.

Cisco Systems ranked second for its customizable online knowledge base, which gives customers access to the same knowledge base used by the firm's technical support staff. Dell Computer placed third for its online product configuration, which lets anyone buying a computer from them custom-configure 21 different features, from hard drive to printer. The report called Dell's setup "one of the quintessential examples of mass customization."

Casual clothing retailer Land's End came in fourth for creating a virtual dressing room for women on its site. By entering information about height, build and hair color, the program creates an online model so women can visualize what they might look like in the clothes they want to purchase.

Peapod's recipe generator earned the Web grocery store fifth place in the Peppers and Rogers study. Customers can punch in a list of ingredients currently stored in their refrigerators and in return they receive recipes that combine all or most of these items.

The other companies making the Top 10 list for Web innovations were S&P Personal Wealth for its customized portfolio advice, Ticketmaster for its online viewer program enabling ticket buyers to check out the sight lines from the seats offered them, the Wall Street Journal for its Personal Journal service, and E*Trade's instant alert system.

While these companies are making significant strides in Web innovations, all businesses have a long way to go in building long-term relationships with their online customers, said Julien Beresford, director of research and publications at Peppers and Rogers.

"There's no company that's doing everything perfectly," Beresford said. The consulting firm based its ranking for Web innovation on five criteria: how well a customer's privacy is protected; the effort made to establish a relationship with the customer; whether the Website is organized by user needs; whether the customer is made to feel like he's in control; and how well the site motivates collaboration between buyer and seller.

"No one is following these five criteria as well as they could be," Beresford said. Despite its top ranking, Amazon.com, for example, received low scores on privacy, motivating collaboration and individual control, he said.

The report is the first of three annual surveys Peppers and Rogers plans to do on Web marketing.