Customer satisfaction with ecommerce sites is on the rise - so much so that online retailing is dominating traditional retail in terms of customer satisfaction.

While ebusinesses as a whole are doing a good job of keeping their customers happy, experts suggest that heated competition for online customers is raising the stakes, making customer satisfaction more important than ever.

Ecommerce Satisfaction

Each year, the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) releases a cross-industry measure of satisfaction with the quality of goods and services available in the United States. For several years, ecommerce sites have been more effective at satisfying their customers than traditional retailers. With the latest report, this lead has grown.

Customer satisfaction in the online sector has improved, while the overall retail industry dropped. According to the ACSI report, "customer satisfaction with online retail is nearly 12 percent higher than it is in the overall retail industry."

The higher rates of customer satisfaction at online retailers bode well for the future of ecommerce. A study published recently in the Journal of Marketing found that companies that do a better job of keeping their customers satisfied are rewarded with more customers and more capital from investors. The authors looked at the relationship between the ACSI and measures of shareholder value, and found a "positive and significant" relationship.

"The findings of this study empirically affirm a fundamental principle of capitalistic free markets: Sellers that do well by their customers are rewarded with more business from buyers and with more capital from investors," note the authors. "Likewise, if businesses fail to satisfy customers as effectively and efficiently as the competitors do, customers and investors turn elsewhere."

The growing difference between customer satisfaction at online and offline retailers could raise the stakes for ebusinesses. As online businesses get more and more effective at satisfying customers, an individual company's ability or inability to satisfy customers becomes more critical.

ITworld.com

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