Clark Howard

Amazon vs. eBay: Which online retailer is best?

Amazon has received a lot of the blame for the struggles that traditional retailers are going through, but a new report found the internet giant may also have some work to do to keep customers coming back for more!

Amazon.com dipped 1% to a score of 85 on the American Customer Satisfaction Index's (ACSI) 100-point scale.

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New report ranks America’s best online retailers 

Even with the slight dip, the ACSI report said that Amazon beat out competitors like Newegg (83), eBay (81) and Overstock (81) to earn the top spot in the internet retail category.

The bulk of the category is made up of smaller online retailers and the websites of brick-and-mortar stores, which earned an 81 collectively.

Amazon 85
Newegg 83
All others 81
eBay 81
Overstock 81

Source: ACSI

The study revealed that online remains the most satisfying place to shop, but internet retailers need to improve with site-generated product recommendations — the least appreciated aspect of online shopping.

Scores for customer-generated reviews, shipping options and customer support also dropped from the previous year.

Amazon is making big changes in 2018

This new report comes as Amazon is in the process of selecting its second headquarters in North America, which will be a full equal to its existing Seattle campus. The company is expected to bring tens of thousands of jobs to the winning city.

So far in 2018, Amazon has made a number of changes that are affecting users, particularly Prime subscribers.

An annual Prime membership still costs $99, but its monthly payment option has gone up to $12.99 after a free trial. Meanwhile, its $5.99 per month Prime membership for low-income Americans has been extended to Medicaid recipients. 

And since taking over Whole Foods, Amazon has started to expand free grocery delivery to a small but growing list of cities.

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Which online retailer is best? Tell us! 

The annual ACSI Retail Report was based on 50,186 customer surveys collected throughout 2017. It also ranked customer satisfaction with other retailers like supermarkets and department and discount stores. 

Which online retailer is best? Check out our Twitter poll and let us know what you think in the comments section below!

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