Customer Satisfaction Dropped on Cyber Monday

Customers shopping online over the weekend following Thanksgiving were more satisfied than they were on Nov. 25, a/k/a “Cyber Monday,” according to a survey of more than 36,000 e-commerce Web site visitors, conducted last week by online customer satisfaction research firm ForeSee Results. Cyber Monday has come to be known as the e-commerce answer to the retail shopping madness of “Black Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving when most U.S. retailers run huge sales to get a jump on the holiday selling season.

As they did in the malls on Black Friday, consumers “were looking for deals,” says Larry Freed, chief executive officer of ForeSee Results. “But retail Web sites didn’t always deliver. Consumers came to expect discounts and free shipping and many were disappointed when they got to checkout.” Other findings from the survey:

* Despite lower customer satisfaction scores on Cyber Monday, customers that abandoned their online shopping carts on that day still were significantly more likely to purchase online than shoppers who abandoned their carts over the holiday weekend.

* Cyber Monday shoppers were less likely to purchase offline.

* Consumers abandoned shopping carts because they were unsatisfied by shipping charges or surprised when anticipated discounts didn’t apply to their purchases.

Source: ForeSee Results, http://www.foreseeresults.com