Chitika’s data solutions engineer, Gabe Donnini, states that e-commerce has significantly grown over the last ten years, representing a growingly massive part of company’s sales. He adds that due to this, user experience emerged as an important factor in assuring success within e-retail. Amazon has been the global leader in e-commerce since the year 1995, Donnini noted, and it reached this point by creating a shopping experience that’s optimized for accessibility and efficiency.

According to the yearly E-Retail Satisfaction Index introduced by ForeSee, e-tailers are getting better at making their clients happy.

In the 2012 report, a record thirty-six Internet retailers out of one-hundred accomplished the ‘threshold for excellence,’ with scores of eighty or above on the one-hundred-point scale. This compares with twenty-eight websites accomplishing this distinction in 2011 and 2010, and 6 attaining it in the year 2009. The aggregate score for 2012 is 78.

CEO of ForeSee, Larry Freed, stated 2012’s Index is good news for customers. He adds that the good are growing better, and strong are growing stronger. Internet retailers now are attuned to the consumer experience and the technology which facilitates the experience.

Amazon in the Lead

Amazon is at the tip of the list, with a score of eighty-nine — an ‘incredible’ score, according to Larry — particularly considering it represents a rise of 3 percentage points over 2011. It’s also 4 points higher than QVC and Apple, next on this list with scores of eighty-five.

Apple’s 2nd place tie with a retailer which has a fully different brand and purchaser constituency might be eyebrow-raising, particularly amongst its fans who think the business is unassailable in terms of customer service, retail experience and product design.

Close watchers of the Index, however, state that Apple scored an eighty in the previous survey, making it amongst the most improved websites. The only additional retailer on this index to post a 5-percentage point increase was RueLaLa.com.