“With traditional usability studies, you can recruit only a few dozen people who require an incentive to participate. You then observe them in a special room, often with a facilitator, which obviously creates a very artificial environment,” said George Hitler, Web operations manager at Bath & Body Works. “With a WebEffective True Intent study, Keynote offered the unique ability to both conduct an online research study and to track actual customer behavior. Keynote’s WebEffective technology allowed us to do this quickly, efficiently, and on a large scale.”

In performing the Keynote True Intent study, WebEffective was used to intercept visitors who came to the Bath & Body Works site on their own power and invite them to participate in a study. After qualifying these visitors, the WebEffective tool watched them do what they came to the site to accomplish and asked them questions based on the tasks they performed during their visit. Said Hitler, “It’s as close as you can get to a true user that happened to be on the site that day.”

Bath & Body Works is using the results of this study to identify the demographics of its site visitors, aspects of the site that need improvement, and determine how to prioritize improvement projects. “The ultimate goal is to increase conversion and encourage brick-and-mortar customers to shop online and become true multi-channel customers,” Hitler said.

“Today’s retail Web sites have grown from nice-to-have to mission critical. We have developed our WebEffective product to provide customers with accurate and reliable data for measuring the effectiveness of their online presence. This allows our customers to make changes that immediately enhance their brand image and separate themselves from the competition,” said Dan Richards, WebEffective product manager at Keynote. “Bath & Body Works is a perfect example of a customer who is using our custom research and WebEffective tool to ensure that their site better meets the needs of their customers — and to thereby encourage their customers to interact with them through multiple channels.”

About Keynote

Keynote Systems (Nasdaq “KEYN”) is the global leader in on-demand test & measurement solutions for continuously improving the online experience. As an independent and trusted third-party, Keynote provides IT and marketing executives with an unbiased view into their Internet services from around the world. For over a decade, Keynote has been providing measurement data and testing capabilities that allow companies to understand and improve their customers’ online and mobile experience. Keynote has four test and measurement businesses: Web performance, mobile quality, streaming & VoIP, and customer experience/UX. In addition, Keynote’s industry analysis group called Keynote Competitive Research publishes proprietary studies measuring customer experience and service levels across a wide range of industries.

Known as The Mobile and Internet Performance Authority™, Keynote has a market-leading infrastructure of 2,400 measurement computers and mobile devices in over 240 locations around the world. Keynote also maintains one of the most representative panels of online users consisting of 160,000 consumers. Keynote’s on-demand, hassle-free infrastructure allows businesses to access services they need, when they need them to pinpoint and fix mobile quality and Internet problems before they impact customers.

Keynote helps over 2,700 corporate customers become “the best of the best” by helping them improve online business performance and mobile communications quality. Keynote’s customers represent top Internet and mobile companies including American Express, BP, Caterpillar, Dell, Disney, eBay, ESPN Mobile, E*TRADE, Expedia, FedEx, Microsoft, SonyEricsson, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and Vodafone.