NETBENEFIT: Is your website ready for the biggest online Christmas ever? NetBenefit urges retailers to get their hosting platforms ready now

It's that time again - Christmas is just around the corner and many retailers are preparing for the busiest time of the year. With many cash strapped consumers already beginning the hunt for Christmas on a budget', NetBenefit urges retailers to maximise their revenue opportunity by making sure their website performance is second to none now.

A recent survey by MyVoucherCodes.co.uk found that, from as early as mid September, nearly half of the internet searches bringing visitors to its site were related to Christmas gifts. Combined with the fact that in the latest IMRG e-CSI index*, two-thirds of shoppers say they are more likely to shop online for Christmas presents this year and, with 77% planning to carry out half or more of their Christmas shopping online (in 2007 it was 56%), creating and maintaining a high performance ecommerce channel is more important than ever.

"The consumer can click away from an online store far faster than they can walk out of a high street shop," says Jonathan Robinson, chief operating officer, NetBenefit. "In the weeks that lead up to Christmas, it is vital that images load fast, response times are instant and that the customer continues all the way through to the conclusion of their transaction without any impaired performance."

But how do you handle the potentially vast increase in traffic without investing in a new infrastructure for 12 months? "Protecting a brand's reputation and revenue stream does not require a whole new e-commerce hosting platform," advises Robinson. "Retailers can consider short term contracts or Content Delivery Network (CDN) services. High performance CDN services offer enhanced services to complement existing business critical managed hosting solutions. They are fast to deploy and will scale with requirements. By combining NetBenefit's business critical ecommerce managed hosting platform with CDN partner Panther's industry leading services, NetBenefit has helped its customers deliver continuous availability and an excellent website performance."

Robinson concludes: "This lead up to Christmas presents a huge opportunity for retailers and the service provided online needs to be second to none. By making each customer's experience the best it can possibly be, from click-on to click-off, retailers can make sure their revenue is maximised and brand reputation protected."

*IMRG e-Customer Service Index (e-CSI) August 2008, for more details see www.imrg.org

Notes to Editors:

About NetBenefit

NetBenefit is part of London listed Group NBT plc (LSE: NBT.). Established in 1995, NetBenefit is an experienced provider of Managed Hosting services in the UK, with a range of services to suit every level of business. Its world-class network infrastructure allows it to guarantee resilient, available and secure Managed Hosting for businesses that need a hosting provider they can depend upon.

Group NBT plc is a leading provider of domain name management and Internet-related services through the six trading brands, NetNames, NetBenefit, Easily.co.uk, Speednames, Ascio and Envisional. Group NBT has over 250 employees and is based in London with offices in Copenhagen, New York, Nice, Frankfurt, Munich and Madrid.

CONTACT: NetBenefit WWW: http://www.netbenefit.com GroupNBT WWW: http://www.groupnbt.com Louisa Constable / Jonathan Bawden, Portfolio Communications Tel: +44 (0)207 240 6959 e-mail: netbenefit@portfoliocomms.com

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