E-Commerce Rated Highly Despite Some Customers’ Concerns

Nearly nine out of ten consumers (88%) making online purchases between February and April rated the experience satisfactory, despite one in five having problems, according to a new study from Dataquest Inc., a unit of Stamford, CT-based Gartner Group, Inc.

One-third of the 37 million U.S. households having access to the Internet or online services have at least one person who placed an order or made a reservation online during the survey period. Of these households, 2.4 million, or about 20%, experienced problems.

Of those, 49% reported that they placed orders that did not arrive, and half of those received bills for the order. One-quarter of the households that experienced problems said that they were unable to contact the merchant’s customer service department via e-mail.

“The primary key to overall consumer satisfaction with online purchasing to date is the ease of placing orders or reservations,” said Dr. Harry Hoyle, vice president for Dataquest’s The Interactive Home: Technology & Infrastructure U.S. program.

“It is vital to win the customer loyalty at this early stage in the development of e-commerce. Internet merchants have the opportunity to gain competitive advantage if they can provide outstanding and imaginative online customer service.”