uTest "Battle of the Specialty E-Tailers" Uncovers Nearly 900 Bugs in eBay, Overstock.com and Zappos

Crowdsourced Testing Leader Holds Community Competition to Compare Specialty E-Tailer Sites Based on Fraud Protection, Product Search Accuracy, Ease-of-Use, Low Prices & More


BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - December 7, 2010) - uTest, the world's largest software testing marketplace, today announced the results of its Specialty E-Tailer Bug Battle competition. More than 600 uTesters, from 28 countries around the world, reported a total of 888 technical, functional and GUI bugs in the web and mobile apps of eBay, Overstock.com and Zappos.

uTest's community of software professionals then ranked the specialty e-tailers based on fraud protection, product search accuracy, ease-of-use, low prices, community reviews and ratings and more. eBay emerged as the leader with the fewest bugs, the top rankings and best overall feedback, followed by Overstock.com and Zappos, respectively (for complete details, see the full uTest Bug Battle report).

TOP-LINE FINDINGS:
In all, 600+ testers from 28 countries participated in the weeklong competition -- reporting nearly 900 bugs.

  • eBay placed first in every survey category and recorded the fewest bugs overall (220 bugs)
  • Trailing eBay in the number of bugs was Overstock.com (314 bugs), closely followed by Zappos (354 bugs)
  • Fraud protection, product search accuracy and overall usability were deemed the most important factors when choosing an e-tailer
  • Zappos came in second in the category of product search accuracy and ease-of-use, while Overstock.com came in second for fraud protection and low prices
  • 65 percent of respondents trust eBay most for their holiday shopping

Fraud Protection Is Most Important

  • 30 percent selected fraud protection as most important when evaluating a specialty e-tailer
  • 78 percent ranked eBay as number one over Overstock (second place) and Zappos (third place)

Product Search Accuracy & Ease Of Use

  • 22 percent selected product search accuracy as most important when evaluating a specialty e-tailer
  • 68 percent ranked eBay as number one over Zappos (second place) and Overstock (third place)
  • Ease-of-use (20%), low prices (9%), community reviews and ratings (6.5%), shopping tools (6.5%), and brand variety (6%) received the remaining votes

Specialty E-Tailer Comparison (ranked by respondents with 1 being the best)

Fraud Protection Product Search Ease-Of-Use Low Prices
1. eBay 1. eBay 1. eBay 1. eBay
2. Overstock 2. Zappos 2. Zappos 2. Overstock
3. Zappos 3. Overstock 3. Overstock 3. Zappos

"With e-tail sales in the U.S. expected to exceed $50 billion this holiday season (Forrester, US Online Holiday Retail Forecast, 2010), companies should be carefully considering how they can improve and optimize their web and mobile apps," said uTest VP of Marketing & Community, Matt Johnston. "This Bug Battle clearly demonstrated that fraud protection, product search accuracy and ease-of-use are vital to the success of retail and e-tail companies. The uTest community once again proved its ability to quickly mobilize and provide in-the-wild testing coverage and usability feedback."

Detailed results of this study are available at http://www.utest.com/bugbattle/q410/results.

About uTest, Inc.
uTest is the world's largest marketplace for software testing services. The company provides real-world testing services through its community of 30,000+ professional testers from 170 countries around the world. Thousands of companies -- from startups to leading software, retail and media enterprises -- have signed up with uTest to get their web, desktop and mobile applications tested. More information can be found at http://www.utest.com or the software testing blog at http://blog.utest.com.

Contact Information:

Media Contact:
Jennifer Moebius
uTest, Inc.
508-480-9999 x114
jenniferm@utest.com
www.twitter.com/utest

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