Holiday Web shoppers pleased
"Immediately after Christmas, we all heard horror stories of undelivered gifts and orders gone astray," said Cameron Meierhoefer, Internet analyst for PC Data Online.
"This study strongly suggests these instances were the exception rather than the rule," Meierhoefer said. "The bottom line is that a majority of home Internet users had a good experience."
The survey found less than 4 percent of consumers said Internet retailers did not meet their expectations and only 0.5 percent said retailers significantly underperformed.
The survey is part of a joint weekly study by Goldman Sachs' Web retailing analyst Anthony Noto and PC Data Online to measure behaviors, attitudes and satisfaction levels during the past holiday season.
Taking stock
According to PC Data, more than half of online shoppers
surveyed said the items they chose for purchase were sometimes
out of stock, and 8.6 percent said items were frequently or
always out of stock.
Still, about 40 percent said items were never out of stock.
The survey also found that 60 percent of shoppers said their gifts were delivered on time, while another 16 percent said items were delivered earlier than expected and 18 percent said delivery was later than expected but still in time.
Almost 4 percent said the items were late and not in time, and 2 percent said they are still waiting for their items to be delivered.
More than 69 percent of those returning an item said the process was easy or very easy, in comparison with 30 percent who said it was difficult.
The PC Data survey also found that 68 percent of respondents said they did not need to use customer service for the site. Of those respondents who did use customer service, about 27 percent said their experience with customer service was negative, while 48 percent said they had positive experiences.