Rating the experience of Internet shoppers

How do Internet shoppers rate the top e-retailers? Not as well as many would like, according to a study out today by ForeSee Results, which uses the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index to rank the top 40 online sellers.

The Ann Arbor, Mich., company recently surveyed 11,000 people who had visited at least one of the 40 companies' sites within the previous two weeks. (To learn more, click here.)

They didn’t necessarily make a purchase. ForeSee says it’s interested in the reactions of anyone who browses the sites, because it believes the attitudes of those who shop without buying are at least as important, in the long run, as the attitudes of those who click and spend.

Among its main conclusions:

* Web shoppers aren’t especially price-sensitive, even if the Internet is often the first place people to go to compare prices.
* Some of the biggest names in traditional retailing are doing a pretty poor job online.

(Full disclosure: Even the worst-ranked of these e-retailers look good when compared with some other industries, including my own. Newspapers in general scored a 63, tying us with wireless phone companies, according to a recent Inquirer article by my colleague Tony Gnoffo about the University of Michigan's latest survey. We were ahead only of cable and satellite-TV companies, which came in at 61. On the other hand, the U.S. Postal Service scored a 73 – better than Buy.com, CompUSA.com, Costco.com, and Kmart.com.)

Here are 42 Web sites ranked by browser satisfaction on a scale, on which 100 would be completely satisfied. (The number is parentheses is the e-retailer’s ranking by revenue – there are more than 40 sites listed because some companies own multiple sites. I’ve also omitted Cornerstone Brands, 37th in revenue, because there was insufficient data to rank its sites.)


Netflix.com (17th in revenue) – 85
Amazon.com (1) – 84
QVC.com (28) – 84
Newegg.com (9) – 82
LLBean.com (38) – 82
OldNavy.com (21) – 81
TigerDirect.com (32) – 81
Apple.com (16) – 80
Avon.com (19) – 80
BN.com (Barnes & Noble) (20) – 80
Williams-Sonoma.com (22) – 80
HarryandDavid.com (34) – 80
HSN.com (Home Shopping Network) (31) – 79
Gap.com (21) – 78
Drugstore.com (27) – 78
EddieBauer.com (29) – 78
PotteryBarn.com (27) – 77
Dell.com (2) – 77
HPShopping.com (Hewlett-Packard) (5) – 77
JCPenney.com (11) – 77
Quixtar.com (14) – 77
ToysRUs.com (23) – 77
OfficeDepot.com (3) – 75
Staples.com (4) – 75
BestBuy.com (10) – 75
Walmart.com (12) – 75
Overstock.com (18) – 75
1800Flowers.com (30) – 75
NeimanMarcus.com (40) – 75
Sears.com (6) – 74
SonyStyle.com (7) – 74
Target.com (13) – 74
CircuitCity.com (15) – 74
FTD.com (39) – 74
BananaRepublic.com (21) – 73
CDW.com (CDW Corp.) (8) – 73
Gateway.com (24) – 73
Chadwicks.com (25) – 73
Buy.com (33 ) – 71
CompUSA.com (35) – 71
Costco.com (26) – 70
Kmart.com (36) – 69