[Air-L] Research on highest traffic e-commerce sites?

[Deborah Elizabeth Finn]

Dear AIR Colleagues,

I'm looking for really serious research on the ten or twenty-five top
ranked e-commerce web sites in North America.  (Beggars can't be
choosers, and for these purposes, I'd define "top ranked" as highest
in gross income, or in net profit, or in mere visitor traffic.)

What I'm looking for is a kind of benchmark group, where the following
kind of data about these sites might be available:

- Platform used to develop the e-commerce site

- Return on investment

- Cost of first twelve months of current incarnation (including
discovery, planning, development, testing, launch, tweaking)

- Cost of annual upkeep (with no major upgrades)

- Number of person hours required in routine annual upkeep of site

- Number of person hours required in all other routine annual
e-commerce related operations (e.g., accounting, fulfillment,
shipping)

- Number of units sold

- Aggregated information on e-commerce customer base (e.g., currency,
language, demographics)

I started out looking for a "Fortune 100 E-commerce Sites" sort of
list, and have thus far found that a) it's difficult to locate such a
list, and b) a magazine for general audiences is unlikely to feature
peer-reviewed research.

Any suggestions?

Many, many thanks from Deborah

Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Strategist and Consultant
Technology for the Nonprofit and Philanthropic Sector
Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Email: deborah.elizabeth at finn.com
Blog: www.deborahelizabethfinn.com
Skype: Deborah909
Twitter: Deborah909
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah909
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Deborah.Elizabeth.Finn
Mobile phone: 1-617-504-8188
Voicemail: 1-617-958-1959

I bring resources and needs together for nonprofits and
philanthropies, mostly through strategic use of information
and communication technologies.