Learn how Competitive comparison helps you make ongoing comparisons with your competitors. |
This article applies to: UserTesting
On this page:
- About competitive comparison
- How to run a competitive comparison test
- When to run a competitive comparison test
- When to run a competitive benchmarking test
About competitive comparison
- Competitive comparison involves asking participants to interact with one or more competitor experiences, and optionally your own.
- This is also sometimes called a competitive analysis or a competitor study.
- Competitive comparison provides insight into what your competitors are doing well and where there may be opportunities to learn from their successes or mistakes.
- They also help you learn about the value and usability of a competitor's product designs or features.
How to run a competitive comparison test
There are a few different ways to approach competitive comparison testing:
- Unmoderated tests: Use any method for collecting feedback, but point contributors to your competitor's site (instead of your own site) using the URL task type.
- Balanced Comparison: If you are comparing your competitor's site to your site, use the Balanced comparison feature when setting up your test.
- Templates: UserTesting provides a Competitive comparison test template in the Template Gallery. The template is suitable for understanding which website or app is most attractive and why and for reviewing contributors' opinions on competitors' offerings. Additionally, UserTesting has created an Insights Report companion template to help synthesize and share the findings of your competitive test.
Here's a demo of how to use the Competitive comparison template in conjunction with the UserTesting Platform's Metrics tab so as to create a report that you can share with key stakeholders.
Professional Services
Our Professional Services team can assist with competitive benchmarking and comprehensive competitive analysis so that you understand how your experience stacks up against that of your competitors over time. Connect with Professional Services to learn more.
When to run a competitive comparison test
- Competitive comparison testing should be conducted regularly on key user flows in your experience, which can be identified as the primary KPI-impacting touchpoints.
- These quarterly or semi-annual "health checkups" will help to reveal new opportunities or threats in the competitive landscape.
- Competitive testing is also critical when considering whether and how to redesign an experience and determine which features to focus on.
When setting up your competitive comparison test with UserTesting, plan to execute these steps:
- Identify the competitive experience to compare against your own.
- Use the Competitive comparison test template to gather comparative feedback on a specific flow on both websites or apps.
- Use the Competitive comparison report template to synthesize and share your findings.
When to run a competitive benchmarking test
- As with any benchmark study, you need to start with a baseline.
- The baseline will be the first test you run to compare the results of future tests and assess what has changed and how much.
Competitive benchmarking is helpful when you want to:
- Set a strategy to create a competitive advantage for growth or mitigate risk.
- Determine how a digital product, brand, or service experience compares with others in a similar category.
- Understand a rapidly changing landscape to determine where to invest resources.
If you need assistance setting up and running a competitive benchmark study, contact our Professional Services team.
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