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Because of the ACSI’s scientifically proven predictive abilities, for many online retailers, satisfaction is the best measure of future success and can be a crucial bellwether during uncertain economic times.

Satisfaction has been consistently lower this year than last, “but that is to be expected, given the economy, and I’ve still remained cautiously optimistic,” said Larry Freed, President and CEO of ForeSee Results. “But the satisfaction gap between last year and this year is growing, and since we’ve seen our measures of online satisfaction tracking with Comscore’s weekly revenue reports, it’s starting to look a little worrisome.”

	Satisfaction 2007	Satisfaction 2008	% Difference
Thanksgiving Weekend	77.1	75.5	-2.08%
Cyber Monday (12/1)	76.6	75.9	-0.91%
Week 1 after Thanksgiving (12/1-12/7)	76.3	75.6	-0.92%
Week 2 after Thanksgiving (12/8-12/14)	77.6	75.2	-3.09%

Other findings from the second weekly holiday benchmark report:

• Customer satisfaction with online prices is exactly the same as last week, probably meaning sales aren’t disappearing as quickly as customers expected.


• Customer satisfaction with navigation is at its lowest score in nearly a month. Since retailers are not likely to be changing their navigation this deep into the holiday shopping season, the dropping score may be a reflection of customers’ increased impatience as the holiday—and deadlines for gift buying—draw closer.


• Likelihood to purchase both online and offline this week is also at the lowest level since the beginning of November. This may confirm what some analysts have feared: that people did their shopping early to take advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, but that sales will be winnowing down from this point forward.

“We don’t have analysis back from ‘Green Monday,’ but with free shipping deadlines ending this week, its going to be a critical week, not just a critical Monday, to turn things around,” said Larry Freed.