Get Me the Package

Got last minute online holiday shopping? One Portland-based company says you may want to go with the U.S. Postal Service.

WebCriteria, Inc., experts in customer experience analysis, released benchmark data ranking several online shipping sites this holiday season.

The study revealed that the U.S. Postal Service site rated the highest in the rankings for ease of use.

Other sites ranked included DHL, UPS and FedEx.

"Product delivery problems were the number one complaint about shopping online last holiday season," said Alistair Williamson, CEO of WebCriteria. "Because of last year's results, I have a feeling that customers are going to be closely tracking their packages this year via these sites. WebCriteria's data shows which sites will be the most convenient to use."

WebCriteria's Task Analysis service looked at a common task to garner the ease of use rankings, and the package delivery sites were tested for the time and effort required to find various shipping rates.

The U.S. Postal Service received a five star rating, with a total task time of one minute and twenty seconds. At the opposite extreme is UPS, which required 2 1/2 minutes to find the same rate information. FedEx received a four star rating, with a total task time of just under 2 minutes. DHL also scored a four star rating, with a slightly quicker task time.