E-retailing declines in latest customer satisfaction survey
For the first time in five years, customer satisfaction with online retailers has declined, according to results of the American Customer Satisfaction Index, conducted in partnership with ForeSee Results Inc.
Customer satisfaction with e-retailers slipped to 80 on a scale of 100, down from 84 a year ago and 83 the year before that.
Leaders Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc. both fell 4 points this year over last. Amazon from 88, one of the highest scores ever in the ACSI’s ten-year history, to 84; eBay from 84 to 80.
“It’s impressive that Amazon kept its satisfaction scores up as long as it did, despite making significant changes to its business model and product selection,” says Larry Freed, president of ForeSee Results. “Amazon used to excite people when it was a pure bookseller and music seller. Now it has a wide product line, including more complex and sophisticated products such as electronics and apparel, and it serves as a shopping aggregator for multiple vendors. That dilutes the brand, can confuse people, and requires a more demanding level of customer support.”
Freed says eBay’s decline is also driven by changes in its business model. “eBay is becoming less a community of individual buyers and sellers and more a retail aggregator of small businesses,” said Freed. “That not only deflates some of the excitement and loyalty, it also puts them into direct competition with Amazon and Overstock.com, which recently added auctions to its offerings. So many of these sites are, to one degree or another, morphing in the same direction and the lines between them are blurring.”
Online retailing still leads other categories in terms of customer satisfaction. All retailing scored 72.6,down from 75. Online auctions scored 77, down from 78. Online travel scored 76, down from 77. Online brokerage scored 75, down from 76 and commercial banking scored 75, same as last year.
“E-retail is undergoing a fundamental shift as some of the industry heavyweights move away from their core focus,” Freed says. “Some of the best-known brands are changing business models and changing their relationships with their customers. It’s tough to do that without eroding satisfaction. As successful e-retailers expand their focus, they have a broader pool of customers to serve with somewhat different expectations. The leaders are still doing well, but they really need to keep an eye on the integrity of their brands.”
The ACSI is produced by the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. The e-commerce portion is done in partnership with ForeSee Results. The ACSI surveys users of measured web sites and uses a formula that weights various aspects of the online experience according to what most influences customer satisfaction and behavior. That formula produces the ACSI score.
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