While at eMetrics San Jose last week, we had the pleasure of seeing the cool kids from ForeSee Results again. I met Larry Freed at last year’s summit during one of the “Birds of a Feather” lunches and by sheer accident or wonderful luck, we ran into each other this year at the same restaurant and our two groups decided to join together and create one fab dinner party. We met some great people and had some really good conversations that night. [Shout outs to Caleb Whitmore and Seth Romanow]. The fabulous Eric Feinberg from ForeSee was there as well and in case you were wondering, he did a great presentation during the “Vender Line-Up” at the conference.
At eMetrics, ForeSee presented their new feature, CS SessionReplay. This new feature lets you watch what your site visitors are actually doing on your site. You can see the clicks, steps and paths taken, or not taken, as they roam your site. Adding this in with the Customer Satisfaction data, you can gain much more robust information about usability, site analysis and get a better understanding of your visitor segments in action on the site.
Today though, ForeSee released their annual online satisfaction research report. (ForeSee Results measures customer satisfaction with top online retailers by using the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Their research ranks the top online retailers in regards to how well they are use their site to “drive loyalty, recommendations, and sales, both online and offline”.) Three reports are available today:
- Top 100 Online Retailers Overall
- Top 100 Apparel Retailers
- Top 100 Computer and Electronics Retailers.
Netflix retained it’s top spot with Amazon close behind. Not much of a surprise there to me, as being a customer of both, I am continually surprised at how well they take care of their customers…which I am sure to their delight has me spending more money with them. Many companies saw improvements in their scores, such as Target, Kohls, Costco, REI, Walmart and others. I was pretty surprised to see JCrew and Urban Outfitters in the bottom section of the list. I’m I big fan of the UO email marketing so the fact that it may not drive sales and loyalty is kind of a shocker to me. There were also a few that did “not fall below the threshold of [a score of] 69″ but had “substantial year-over-year decreases in satisfaction”. Some of those were again, a surprise: 1800Flowers.com and Apple of all things. Apple! Wow.
Want to know where LL Bean, JCPenney, MusiciansFriend.com, Disney, Zappos, Barnes & Noble, Blockbuster and Gap.com fell in the list? Check out the reports.
Key findings from the reports include:
“Satisfaction with the Top 100 e-retailers has fallen almost 3% since last year from an aggregate score of 75 (on the study’s 100-point scale) in spring of 2008 to a score of 73 in spring 2009.
Netflix.com (85) leads the Top 100 for the third year in a row, and Amazon.com (84) again comes in a close second place. These two industry titans have claimed the top two spots for five years in a row.
Online satisfaction drives loyalty, sales, and word of mouth. Highly satisfied online shoppers are 64% more likely to purchase from the retailer next time they’re in the market for similar merchandise, 71% more likely to purchase online, 44% more likely to purchase offline, 72% more likely to recommend the retailer’s website, and 63% more committed to the brand than are shoppers with a low level of satisfaction. This is a striking testament to the strong competitive advantage held by online retailers who do a stellar job at satisfying their online customers.
In aggregate, e-retailers should focus on merchandise and price in order to increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and purchase intent. This is a shift in priorities from previous years.
The Specialty Retail (non-apparel) and Books/CDs/DVDs are the leading product categories with aggregate scores of 76 and 75 respectively. Other e-retail categories measured by the study include: Mass Merchants (74), Computers & Electronics (74), Food & Drug (73), Apparel & Accessories (72), and Housewares & Home Furnishings (72). The individual retailers within each category are also scored in the following report.”
Filed under: Analytics, Brand, Engagement, Optimization, User Experience | Tagged: eMetrics, ForeSee Results, Larry Freed, CS Session Replay, Customer Satisfaction Index
