Amazon satisfies mobile buyers most; Apple ties with QVC
The e-commerce giant takes first place in a ForeSee survey measuring customer satisfaction among mobile holiday shoppers.
Amazon proved No. 1 among consumers shopping for the holidays via their mobile devices, according to a new report from analytics firm ForeSee.
Released today, ForeSee's "Mobile Satisfaction Index: Holiday Retail Edition" awarded Amazon a score of 85 out of 100 based on satisfaction among shoppers who used its mobile retail store.
Apple tied with QVC for second place with a score of 83. After that came NewEgg, Victoria's Secret, Barnes & Noble, Footlocker, HSN, Costco, and Hewlett-Packard to round out the top 10.
The poll specifically focused on the 25 largest U.S. mobile retailers to gauge the customer experience using their shopping apps and Web sites via mobile devices. The report showed that overall customer satisfaction with mobile shopping rose two points since the 2011 holidays.
"The mobile platform is maturing much faster than the PC platform," ForeSee president and CEO Larry Freed said in a statement. "We see it in the rate of consumer adoption, and fortunately we are seeing it in how well the top retailers are adapting to multichannel consumers who are embracing yet another powerful tool."
Overall satisfaction with traditional retail Web sites and mobile sites were about neck and neck, though the level varied among specific retailers. More than half of the people polled visited the company's Web site as the first step in shopping for an item, and most were highly satisified with that experience.
ForeSee's study also examined the effects of "showrooming," in which consumers check out products at brick-and-mortar stores only to buy them cheaper online.
Among those polled, 70 percent said they used a mobile phone in a retail store to search for online prices for certain items. Out of those, 62 percent accessed the store's mobile site or app, but a hefty 37 percent said they went to a competitor's mobile site.
Other tech players among the top 25 included Best Buy, Buy.com (now known as Rakuten.com), Staples, and Overstock.
Conducted between November 21 and December 10, 2012, the survey collected responses from more than 6,200 consumers.