• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, February 17, 2005

Customer satisfaction with online retailers has declined for the first time in five years, according to results of the American Customer Satisfaction Index, conducted in partnership with ForeSee Results Inc. Customer satisfaction with e-retailers dropped 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 dropped from 88, one of the highest scores ever in the ACSI's ten-year history, to 84; eBay, from 84 to 80.

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, the same as last year.

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.