QVC marked the highest conversion rates out of approximately 117 online retailers, turning 16.3 percent of its site shoppers into purchasers, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. The company released its first Internet retail report card, highlighting the top 10 online retailers ranked by sales conversion rates, and top 15 product categories ranked by average order size during February 2005.

The average conversion rate is 4.9 percent among the top 100 retailers, as reported in the MegaView Online Retail service.

Nielsen//NetRatings found that among the top 10 online retailers ranked by conversion rates in February 2005, only Coldwater Creek has a significant brick-and-mortar presence. The remaining nine retailers are comprised of a television shopping network, catalogs and online-only retailers.

"Brick-and-mortar retailers are noticeably absent among the top performers in online sales conversion rates. While traffic is high to popular brick-and-mortar Web sites, visitors are often researching purchases to be made offline," said Heather Dougherty, senior retail analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. "Customers visiting a catalogers' Web site already have the information they need about the product, and therefore, are ready to make an immediate purchase."

The following URL links to a PDF file. http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_050407.pdf