Auctions & Classifieds - Benchmarking the Industry Online

The number of competitors in each online marketplace is proliferating. With start-ups, traditional industry leaders, and established online brands expanding into new areas, all of them battling for consumer attention, the central challenge for Web executives is to differentiate their site from those of their competitors. Given the rapid speed of development, the ever-growing expectations of consumers, and the relative ease of competitive imitation, Web sites are expanding their offerings, improving their technology, and redesigning their interfaces in a seemingly endless race. Keeping up with the competition is not easy in this space; a dizzying array of options face the overwhelmed Web designer, who is charged with executing monthly—and even weekly or daily—upgrade cycles. Jupiter benchmarking reports are designed to help keep Web executives abreast of the competitive landscape, as they can turn to our market overviews to track the features, services, technologies, and interface strategies of all the key players in a given Internet market. This analysis is based on Jupiter's WebTrack database. WebTrack is a research and analysis tool that establishes a system for documenting and analyzing Web sites' deployment of Internet technologies to enhance user experience, facilitate the development of a consumer base through either online or off-line distribution channels, or disseminate industry-specific information. Jupiter's biannual benchmarking reports, based on the output from WebTrack, put a given online industry market sector in context and facilitate for Web executives the critical tasks of competitive analysis and upgrade planning.