“Allowing customers of Gap.com to easily jump to other web sites in the Gap family, and put all their selections in one shopping cart, undermined perception of the brand and eroded user satisfaction,” says a Storefront Backtalk report on Foresee Results’ US 2008 Holiday Top 40 Retail Satisfaction Index:

ForeSee President and CEO Larry Freed blamed the low score on diminished user perception due to well-intentioned changes to Gap.com.

Freed said Gap’s decision to enable Gap.com users to easily jump to the sites of its other stores — Banana Republic, Piperlime and Old Navy — and place all items in the same shopping cart, backfired.

“Gap added some functionality to its Web site,” Freed said. “The IT guys would say, ‘It’s great. We added a feature.’ But the reality is this is one of the downfalls in the Gap score this year.”

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