Overall customer satisfaction with the goods and services that Americans buy improved in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).

On average, retailers with improving ACSI scores lost about 30% of their market value in 2008, while those with declining ACSI scores lost nearly twice as much (57%). By comparison, the S&P 500 dropped by 38%.

Every fourth quarter, the ACSI measures customer satisfaction with retail, finance and insurance and ecommerce. For the latest Index, the overall ACSI score for ecommerce fell 2.0% to 80.0 and online retail fell 1.2% percent to 82, driven mostly by drops for Amazon and eBay.

Despite the small dip, though, Amazon (-2% to 86) remains the second highest scoring firm of all companies. The situation for eBay is different, though. Its ACSI score slumped 4% to 78, an all-time low. Revenues fell 7% in the fourth quarter, marking eBay’s first ever negative year-on-year quarter, and its stock price lost almost 60% in 2008.

Newegg leads the online retail category with a score of 88. The computer hardware and software retailer has done well offering consistently high quality service and quick response time, say the researchers.

The Index is produced by the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business in partnership with the American Society for Quality and CFI Group.

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