While much of the retail sector anticipates a turnaround in 2021, customer satisfaction is not heading in the right direction. Overall, the sector has declines by 2.3 per cent to a score of 75.5 (out of 100) —the lowest for the sector since 2015, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index’s (ACSI) retail and consumer shipping report 2020-2021.
“2020 sent waves of disruption across the Retail sector,” says ACSI managing director David VanAmburg. “From mandatory closures that halted in-person shopping to stock shortages caused by panic buying, retailers experienced anything but business as usual. Deliveries from online retailers were delayed, and customers were frustrated when high-demand items sold out. And it shows, as 86 per cent of the retailers measured suffer downturns in customer satisfaction year over year.”While much of the retail sector anticipates a turnaround in 2021, customer satisfaction is not heading in the right direction. Overall, the sector has declines by 2.3 per cent to a score of 75.5 (out of 100)-the lowest for the sector since 2015, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index's (ACSI) retail and consumer shipping report 2020-2021.#
The report covers six retail industries: department and discount stores, specialty retail stores, health and personal care stores, supermarkets, internet retail and gas stations, along wth consumer shipping and the US Postal Service. Among the six retail categories, not one escapes the trend of declining customer satisfaction in 2020, a press release from ASCI says.
For 2020, online retail loses the most ground among all retail categories, tumbling 3.7 per cent to an ACSI score of 78.
Nordstrom captures the industry lead despite retreating by 1 per cent to 81. In second place, Costco (down by 1 per cent), Etsy (down by 2 per cent) and Newegg (down by 1 per cent) are all deadlocked at 80. Former industry leader Amazon tumbled by 5 per cent to an all-time low score of 79.
With a stable score of 78, Target is the only e-commerce retailer to buck the downward ACSI trend. Most of the industry scores below the average of 78. Macy’s and Wayfair both tumbled by 4 per cent to scores of 77, tied with eBay (down by 3 per cent).
Walmart and Sears remain the industry bottom dwellers. Walmart inched back by 1 per cent to 73, while Sears fizzled by 1 per cent to 72.
ALCHEMPro News Desk (DS)
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