ForeSee: Online shopper satisfaction down

Online shoppers on both sides of the pond weren’t as happy with their experiences this year as they were in 2006, according to a couple of surveys recently carried out by ForeSee Results.

by Helen Leggatt

Recent surveys carried out in the U.S. and U.K. by ForeSee Results, found that overall customer satisfaction with online retailers during the 2007 holiday period was down on last year.

In the case of the U.S., the levels of customer satisfaction were down 1.3 percent to an average score of 74 (out of 100). The first of ForeSee’s surveys in the U.K. put British customer satisfaction 11 percent lower than the U.S., with an average score of 66.

Pure play Internet businesses topped both the U.S. and the U.K. Top Retail Online Satisfaction Index – Netflix and Amazon in the U.S., and Play.com, Amazon and eBay in the U.K.

ForeSee’s top 10 online retailers and their point scores are as follows:-

U.S.

Netflix - 86
Amazon - 82
QVC - 80
L.L.Bean - 80
Apple - 79
Avon - 79
Zappos - 78
BN.com - 78
TigerDirect - 77
Newegg - 77

U.K.

Play.com - 76
Amazon UK - 75
ebay UK - 72
QVCUK.com - 71
HMV.co.uk - 70
Marks & Spencer - 70
Ebuyer - 70
Tesco Direct - 69
John Lewis - 69
Screwfix Direct - 69

At the other end of the scale in the U.S. were Overstock (70), SonyStyle.com (70), OfficeMax (68) and CompUSA (67), and in the U.K. PC World (59), WHSmith (59), La Redoute (58) and B&Q (53).

“Those with 60 points or below are failing to satisfy shoppers, eroding loyalty and are missing a tremendous opportunity to leverage the web channel to improve their bottom line," said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results. "They are holding back further adoption of web purchasing for the rest of the retail market. Those that are doing well should be applauded for recognising how important it is to get it right.”