uTest “Battle of the E-Tailers” Uncovers 500+ Bugs in Amazon.com, Walmart.com and Target.com

Dec. 7, 2009 - PRLog -- uTest, the world’s largest software testing marketplace, today announced the results of its E-Tailer Bug Battle. Nearly 600 uTesters from 20+ countries around the world participated in the quarterly competition, reporting a total of 505 technical, functional, security and GUI bugs in Amazon.com, Walmart.com and Target.com.

The uTest community also ranked the e-tailers for best product search, pricing, reviews and ratings, product comparison tools and usability. Amazon.com emerged as the clear leader, followed by Walmart.com, leaving Target.com a distant third (see full Bug Battle report for details).

Top-Line Findings:
 • Target.com had the most reported bugs (261), followed by Walmart.com (150) and Amazon (94).
 • Amazon ranked highest in most categories (pricing, ease of use, product reviews), while Walmart ranked highest in product search tools and also earned good marks for pricing.
 • Target.com ranked lowest in all five categories and accounted for 261 bugs, more than half of all bugs reported in the competition.
 • 67% did not choose “lowest prices” when asked to identify their most important criteria (unexpected given the current economy).  Said differently, only 1 in 3 chose lowest prices as their primary decision making criteria.
 • Nearly 75% of all survey respondents said they trust Amazon most for their holiday shopping.

E-Tailer Comparison (Top-two box score of testers who rated each site as “excellent” or “good”):
                                                                                       AMAZON        WALMART     TARGET
Price Competitive                                                            66%                65%               29%
Ease of Use                                                                     72%                56%               41%
Product Search Capability                                             71%                74%               46%
User Reviews & Ratings                                               76%                40%               34%
Product Comparison Tools                                           62%                50%               25%

Final Bug Battle Results:
 • Amazon.com
    o   94 bugs reported
    o   11% classified as “showstoppers”
    o   21% Technical, 67% Functional and 12% GUI

 • Walmart.com
    o   150 bugs reported
    o   9% classified as “showstoppers”
    o   23% Technical, 54% Functional and 23% GUI

 • Target.com
    o   261 bugs reported
    o   7 percent classified as “showstoppers”
    o   20% Technical, 56% Functional and 25% GUI

“According to a recent Forrester Research report, online sales are expected to reach $44.7 billion during November and December – a year-over-year increase of 8%,” said uTest VP of Marketing and Community, Matt Johnston. “The purpose of this Bug Battle was to compare the three leading e-tailers, as well as to demonstrate that application quality matters a great deal to online shoppers.  The uTest community once again demonstrated how quickly they can mobilize to provide professional testing coverage and usability feedback for any application.”  

Detailed results of this study are available at http://www.utest.com/bugbattle/q409/results.

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uTest is the world's largest marketplace for software testing services. The company provides real-world testing services through its community of 21,000+ professional testers from 159 countries around the world. More than 1,000 companies - from web startups to global software leaders - have signed up for the uTest marketplace to get their web, desktop and mobile applications tested. More information can be found at http://www.utest.com or the company’s Software Testing Blog at http://blog.utest.com.