Recently, ForeSee Results, alongside FGI Research and University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index, released their annual Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction Index, which ranks retail websites based on sales and customer loyalty.

Using a 100-point scale, the study showed that a satisfied online shopper was 73 percent more prone to continuing to purchase items online, 38 percent more likely to buy merchandise offline and 75 percent more willing to recommend an online retailer than a dissatisfied one.

Larry Freed, President and CEO of ForeSee Results, stated that customer satisfaction was a very important factor in rendering an online business to thrive, adding that unfortunately, many online retailers had failed to take that into account. Moreover, he revealed that only two of the 40 retail websites that the study looked at had managed to get a score above 80 in terms of customer satisfaction, with more than a quarter of the online retailers involved in the study having scored 70 or lower in that matter.

Furthermore, 40 percent of them registered a decrease in customer satisfaction, which seems to have been dropping year by year, the steepest decline having been for Home Shopping Network and Gap.

The top three positions in the study were grabbed by Amazon, Netflix-the two ranked highest last year, as well-and QVC, with the former online retailer having said that the 2008 holiday season had been its best ever.

The study also found that since the previous holiday season, only 10 retail websites had improved in terms of online shopper satisfaction, Wal-Mart.com and HP’s online store having topped that list.