Online shoppers wanted more than price, new survey says

— -- For the first time since the financial crisis of 2008, price mattered less for online holiday shoppers.

Finding the best merchandise and receiving more information about products were more important to consumers this year, according to ForeSee's 2011 Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction index released today.

"The aggressive promotions and discounts helped sales, but consumers wanted more from retailers," says Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee, a customer experience analytics firm.

Ordinarily, price and convenience drive e-commerce, says Andrew Lipsman, vice president of industry analysis at ComScore, an online research firm.

Price may not have been in the forefront in driving consumer spending online this year, Lipsman says, but it remained a key factor.

This holiday season, free shipping was the price break that consumers found attractive.

"When we last measured it about a week ago, 56% of all online transactions involved free shipping," he says. That was about a 50% increase over last year, he says.

Among the top 40 online retailers, Amazon rated the best in consumer satisfaction, as measured by the ForeSee index.

For the past seven years, Amazon faced competition for the top spot from Netflix. But this year, Netflix's missteps in pricing its movie options prompted customer defections and caused its online satisfaction to drop. It ranked 32nd.

Amazon continues to stand out because of its marketing efforts, customer service, inventory and competitive prices, according to ForeSee.

Few analysts seem surprised by Amazon's high ratings.

"They are masters at satisfying the customer and the customer experience," says Vicki Cantrell, executive director of Shop.org, National Retail Federation's digital division.

After Amazon, the top e-retailers were Avon, J.C. Penney, QVC and Apple. J.C. Penney was among the most improved sites. At the bottom of the list was Overstock.com and Gap.com.

Even though they have the lowest ratings, ForeSee doesn't consider Overstock.com and Gap.com to be laggards because they still performed relatively well.

Online holiday spending seems to be on an upswing, although the National Retail Federation hasn't released its assessment of this year's spending.

The busier people get, the more appealing online shopping becomes, Cantrell says. And the growing use of smartphones and tablets is making online shopping much more accessible.