Online Travel Satisfaction Continues to Decline

According to a new study, e-commerce satisfaction in the online travel industry falls for a second straight year. The three major online travel sites all suffered drops in satisfaction, as they continue to have difficulty differentiating their services.

Customer satisfaction with the e-commerce sector hits an all-time high, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), released today by the University of Michigan with e-commerce partner ForeSee Results. E-commerce in aggregate rises to a score of 81.6 on the ACSI’s 100-point scale, a significant 2 percent jump from 2006. The e-commerce sector now outperforms all other service industries measured by ACSI.

The ACSI E-Commerce Report, which is a part of the ACSI’s fourth quarter report, measures customer satisfaction with online retail, online brokerage and online travel companies.

Online retail is the highest scoring industry in the fourth quarter, scoring 83 for a second consecutive year and surpassing the offline retail sector (74.2) by 12 percent. All of the measured companies in the e-retail industry are among the top 10 highest-scoring companies in all of ACSI.

E-retail stalwart Amazon.com ties its all-time high, up 1 point to 88, leading both the e-retail industry and the e-commerce sectors. The silver and bronze for online retail go to two new companies to the Index: Newegg debuts at 87 and Netflix at 84.

Amazon has the second-highest score in the ACSI (trailing only Heinz) and surpasses other customer-pleasing companies such as Apple and Southwest Airlines. The company’s dedication to the customer experience is paying off in terms of customer satisfaction, as evidenced by its biggest fourth quarter revenues ever.

ACSI merged the auction category with online retail to reflect the increasing overlap and competition between the two. EBay moves up a point to 81, but it has been fairly stagnant over the last few years, failing to come up with the true business innovations that have catapulted Amazon up 5 percent since 2004.

The online travel industry falls for a second straight year, dropping 1.3 percent to 75. The three major online travel sites all suffered drops in satisfaction. Expedia remains the highest-scoring company, but its score plummets 3.8 percent to 75. Travelocity and Orbitz both drop to 73, as the three companies continue to have difficulty differentiating their services.