Netflix ‘no longer a contender’
May 14, 2012
By Colin Mann
Online entertainment subscription service Netflix is suffering unfavourably in comparison with e-commerce stalwart Amazon, according to the latest findings from the annual Top 100 E-Retail Satisfaction Index from customer experience analytics firm ForeSee.
Scores of 80 or higher on ForeSee’s 100-point scale are considered superior customer satisfaction performances. In 2010 and 2011, 28 websites achieved this distinction, while in 2009 only six websites cleared the mark. The Index in aggregate plateaus however, scoring 78 for a third consecutive year.
According to ForeSee, Amazon continues to set the bar higher, climbing three points to 89, and four points higher than the second-highest scoring websites, Apple.com (85) and QVC.com (85). Apple is also one of the most improved sites from last year, surging five points. Netflix (81) is four points down from a year ago, but it regained two points from the Index’s 2011 holiday-season metric.
“Amazon continues to set the standard for e-retailers. The truth is that every consumer who has visited Amazon knowingly or unknowingly benchmarks all other experiences against it, and why wouldn’t they? They do everything and they do it well,” said study author Larry Freed, President and CEO of ForeSee.
“That is going to spell even bigger trouble for Netflix. The two companies used to vie for number one. Now Netflix is floundering just as Amazon is making deeper moves into streaming video and even original programming. Netflix regained some lost ground, but it’s no longer a contender,” he said.
Freed suggested that highly satisfied website visitors are nearly 70% more likely to recommend a website to others than dissatisfied customers. “In the modern world of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media, it is even more imperative to provide the best experience possible to your customers because any experience has huge potential to be amplified, for better or for worse,” he advised.