• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, 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