• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, February 27, 2002

ECommerce Beats Retail in Quality and Value

The latest Confidence Measurement report from the University of Michigan Business School, ASQ, and consulting firm CFI Group, finds that e-commerce customer satisfaction levels surpass traditional retail despite the many reports of the death of dot-coms. E-commerce is registering very strong scores on perceived quality and value. Online satisfaction earned a score of 77 vs. traditional retail's score of 74.8 on a 100-point scale. Larry Freed of ForeSee Results, a sponsor of the study, says "(we're) moving into a more bottom-line era of getting an understanding of what customers actually care about, and what will produce both satisfaction and profitability."

In e-commerce companies, Amazon.com posted the highest score (84), with BarnesandNoble.com (82) and eBay (82) not far behind. The biggest improvement was made by 800/Flowers.com, which jumped 10 percent from 69 to 76 (The ACSI measured e-commerce companies for the first time last year). Portals did not fare so well in the eyes of customers. Despite a 4 percent increase, America Online once again posted the lowest mark (58) among e-commerce companies. Freed notes, "AOL's score is representative of a common struggle among portal companies---not quite knowing what to give customers who still do not know exactly what they want from portals." The charts below show a comparison of e-commerce companies measured on each of the key components that comprise the final ACSI score..

E-Commerce and Retail Ratings (on a scale of 100)

	Customer Expectations	Perceived Overall Quality	Product Quality	Service Value	Perceived Quality
E-Commerce	77.7	80.7	85.4	83.9	78.3
Retail	76.2	78.7	78.7	74.0	79.0
National ACSI Average*	77.3	78.4	N/A	N/A	72.5

E-Commerce and Retail Ratings (on a scale of 100)

	Customer Loyalty	Total Complaints	Customer Satisfaction	Customer Retention	Home-page
E-Commerce	72.9	10.4%	74.9	75.7%	71.0
Retail	74.8	10.0%	78.8	80.4%	N/A
National ACSI Average*	72.6	15.2%	71.5	71.6%	N/A

* All Industries ACSI: American Customer Satisfaction Index