E-Commerce Industry Soaring
And among Web retailers, Amazon.com and bookseller Barnes&Noble.com are said to be "leading a performance surge."
The e-commerce results are part of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) study by the University of Michigan and ForeSee Results, an online customer satisfaction management firm. The overall e-commerce score of 77.6 is a 4.7-point improvement over last year.
The ACSI report includes scores for four categories of e-commerce: online retail, travel, online brokerage, and auction/reverse auction. The e-retail category, with a score of 83 on the 100-point scale, was up significantly over last year (from 77).
Online travel services are a strong performer, with an average score of 77 and tightly clustered competition among Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, and smaller players.
The auction/reverse auction category is dominated by eBay, which registered an 82 far ahead of its closest measured rival, Priceline.com, which earned only a 71. Online brokerage services overall earned a score of 73.
"Brick-and-mortar retail is doing fine, but lags way behind the trajectory of e-retail," said Larry Freed, an expert on online customer satisfaction and CEO of ForeSee Results.
The e-retail sector scores above 90 on perceived quality, a score that makes it an economy-wide standard-setter, Freed said. "In today's tough economy, e-commerce has strong potential to be a bright spot that can play an important role in fueling a recovery," he added.
The ACSI is released quarterly by the University of Michigan, measuring a different set of industries each quarter such that each industry is measured once per year.
December 3rd, 2008, posted by rose
