Online satisfaction slipped at Walmart

An annual holiday e-retail satisfaction report produced by analytic's firm ForeSee showed a slight deterioration in Walmart’s satisfaction score during the holidays.

Amazon.com, LLBean.com and QVC.com were the top three retailers on ForeSee’s Annual Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction survey while Walmart.com fell in the middle of the pack.

This is the eighth year the customer experience analytics firm has conducted the survey examining shopper satisfaction with the nation’s top e-commerce players. Rounding out the top 10 in order of their appearance were Vitacost.com, Esteelauder.com, Vistaprint.com, 1800contacts.com, Keurig.com, Scholastic.com. Avon.com and Cabelas.com. The satisfaction report results are based on 24,000 responses from visitors to the top 100 Web sites between Thanksgiving and Christmas with each company assigned a score on a 100 point scale. Walmart scored a 78 this year compared to 79 last year.

That put the company dead on the aggregate customer satisfaction score which stagnated at 78 this year while a few big-name retailers suffered declines. For example, Apple’s online retail store slid 4% to 80, slipping from a tie for second place and out of the top five entirely, registering its lowest score in four years. PC competitor Dell.com also fell 4% to 77 and below the Index average. But the biggest year-over-year decline goes to JCPenney.com, with a 6% decline to 78.

"This year, we’re seeing that even some of the largest companies in the country are at risk if they lose sight of customer satisfaction," said Larry Freed, ForeSee president and CEO. "Satisfaction with the customer experience, when measured correctly, is the most important predictor of future success, and while Amazon clearly gets it, Apple stumbles from their usual focus on the customer experienceDell, and J.C. Penney seem to be struggling to find their way, which could make them extremely vulnerable to competitors."

Amazon.com continues to set the standard for customer satisfaction, matching the record high of 88 it set last year in the holiday edition of the Index. Amazon has had the highest scores in the Index for eight years in a row.

"At this point, Amazon has been dominant for so long and has such a history of focusing on the customer, its hard to imagine anyone else coming close," Freed said.