A new study has found that online retailers reached a high-water mark for customer satisfaction this holiday season, with the 40 largest e-commerce vendors posting across-the-board improvements over last year.
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) took the top spot with a score of 87 on the 100-point American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a methodology developed by researchers at the University of Michigan that is used to gauge consumer sentiment in a variety of areas across government and the private sector.
ForeSee Results, the research firm that conducted the study, said that Amazon's score was the highest it has ever recorded for online retail, and represented a 3.6 percent increase over the firm's mark last year, when it tied for the top spot with Netflix. This year, Netflix checked in just behind Amazon with a score of 86.
The top 40 retailers posted an aggregate score of 79, a 6.1 percent increase over last year, when several prominent retailers saw their ACSI scores slip from 2007.
"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," Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results, said in a statement.
Rounding out the top five after Amazon and Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), QVC checked in at No. 3 with a score of 83, followed by Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Cabela's, an outdoor equipment retailer, both with a score of 82.
ForeSee considers a score of 80 the threshold for excellence on the ACSI scale.
For industry watchers looking for good news amid a still-sluggish economy, the new study will be a welcome compliment to early reports of strong holiday sales in the online sector.
On Monday, MasterCard Advisors released its SpendingPulse report, finding that from Nov. 1 to Dec. 24, online spending was up 15.5 percent over last year. Since Black Friday, Nov. 27, e-commerce spending was up 18 percent over last year.
In their survey, the ACSI researchers attempted to quantify the correlation between customer satisfaction and real sales. They found, for instance, that consumers who say they are highly satisfied are 65 percent more likely to make a purchase online than those who had a worse experience.
They also noted that satisfaction is likely to translate into other gains for retailers, such as the likelihood that a customer will return or recommend the site to friends.
Price Still Leads the Way
Consumers this year named price as the top factor in determining their overall satisfaction with an online retailer, followed by other criteria such as selection and the functionality of the site.
With a 13 percent increase in its score over last year, Macys was the most improved retailer on the list, registering a score of 79. By that measure, other notables included Gap and Overstock (NASDAQ: OSTK), which both posted a 10 percent increase to net a score of 76.
No retailer on the list received a score below 70, though Freed pointed out that the study is not representative of the long tail of the online sector.
"These are the biggest retailers on the Web, and they've got the ability to invest in the Web channel and even meet the price points that consumers are looking for in this economy," he said. "Smaller and midsized e-retailers may not be so lucky."
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