Ann Arbor, Mich. – Customer satisfaction with
e-commerce sites was up this holiday season compared with last year, with Amazon.com ranking highest among the 40 largest
e-tailers.
Indeed, the e-tail pioneer earned
the highest score ever recorded by ForeSee Results, which compiles the annual
holiday satisfaction report based on a survey of 10,000 visitors.
Amazon’s score rose 3.6 percent over
last year to an 87 on the research firm’s 100-point scale, followed within the
CE sector by Apple at 82, Newegg at 81 and Systemax at 80, while Dell,
Costco.com and Walmart.com all tied at 79.
Among other CE leaders, BestBuy.com
and SonyStyle.com tied at 77, although Sony’s direct-sell site showed the
greatest improvement within the CE sector with a 10 percent increase year over year.
CircuitCity.com was the lowest
scoring CE site, with a 73, although customer satisfaction with the Systemax-owned
property rose nearly 6 percent from last year, when it was under previous
management.
Together the Top 40 e-tailers (by
sales revenue) on the ForeSee index earned a record aggregate score of 79, up 7
percent from last year. Nine of the sites scored over 80 (considered the
threshold of excellence), and none scored below 70 (where e-tailers risk losing
sales and market share if improvements are not made).
“Even in this tough economic climate, e-retail continues to be
the bright spot in a dark environment, and last year’s declines are proving to
be the anomaly,” said ForeSee Results’ president/CEO Larry Freed.
Kevin Ertell, ForeSee’s retail strategy VP, added that simply cutting
prices, which was a priority this year, “isn’t necessarily a business model for
success, so prioritizing Web site improvements that customers value most is an
absolute necessity.”
The e-tail index scores are determined using the methodology of the
University of
Michigan’s American
Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a national standard for customer
satisfaction that has been shown to have a direct link to stock prices and
other measures of financial performance, ForeSee said.
