Satisfaction with e-Commerce Dropped

In recent blogs I have been focused on e-Commerce and the associated e-loyalty. Foresee Results which is associated with the American Customer Satisfaction Institute (ACSI) has reported that satisfaction with e-commerce has dropped 2 points to 80 (on a 100 point scale). One of the key contributors to the drop was a 6.3 percent drop in customer satisfaction with online brokerages. Some of the other results are:
1. Online travel satisfaction remains flat.
2. Online retail has also dropped 1.2 percent to a score of 82 with EBay showing a decline of 4 percent to 78 points which is the lowest that EBay has ever recorded for ACSI.
3. The three largest drops were E*Trade, EBay, and Priceline.com. (online travel sector).

There is some logic that retailers are giving such great deals off line that consumers do not have to shop on line to get the bargains. The other logic is that the financial crisis is hitting e-Commerce. e-Commerce is not immune to the economic conditions in the market.

The bottom line is the e-Commerce may be losing some steam but the cost of maintaining a web site is not the same as keeping a bricks and mortar business running. The companies that use the web must focus on the characteristics that I have mentioned in the past; namely, excellent customer service, a web site that is easy to navigate and is secure.