The UK's best and worst online retailers have been named, and more retailers have fallen into the category of "underperforming", including B&Q.
Global customer experience analytics company ForeSee has published the findings of its annual Experience Index for UK online retail in 2013, which measures the top 40 online retailers for customer satisfaction. Ratings are out of 100% and this year ranged between 84 at the top of the table and 60 at the bottom.

B&Q's diy.com was named as one of the "decliners" and came in joint second-to-last place at 68 after losing three satisfaction points from last year, when it was the joint most improved online business. (B&Q's 15-point improvement since 2007, however, was said to be nonetheless impressive.) This comes after B&Q's website was found at the bottom of the Which? survey of online shops in October. homebase.co.uk came in third-to-last place after having lost two satisfaction points from 2012.

The other second-to-last online retailers were lastminute.com and ticketmaster.co.uk and ryanair.com came in last place.

Meanwhile, Ikea is one of the "most improved" online retailers and came in near the top of the rankings with a score of 76 out of 100, three points up from last year. John Lewis came in third place after falling one point to 79; in the last three years the retailer has kept a strong position at the top of the leader board and scored 80 in 2011 and 2012. Earlier this month the company reported that online sales were up 22%, a second record-breaking week in a row.

Amazon scooped the top spot with its amazon.com and amazon.co.uk websites dominating first and second place respectively; both sites scored the highest score of 84, with amazon.com maintaining its lead from 2012 but amazon.co.uk losing two points.

ForeSee said that whilst a one-point drop in satisfaction is considered a small decrease, the direct effect it has on revenue and profitability means that even slight changes can have a significant impact. "Research conducted across the top 100 US retailers shows that, for an individual company, a one-point increase in satisfaction is likely to lead to a 10.6% increase in revenues generated on the web."

The company reported that online customer satisfaction shows a slight decline this year, the first fall since its survey launched in 2007. "It is possible that the fall in 2013 is an outcome of the higher expectations of an increasingly sophisticated and hard-to-please marketplace," the study said.

Ceo at ForeSee, Larry Freed, commented: "With a proven, quantifiable relationship between a positive customer experience online and increased loyalty, sales and recommendations, many of the online retailers in the UK Top 40 clearly need to pay more attention to satisfying their UK customers. This is especially true of the 19 retailers listed with an average or lower score.

"The good news for those with disappointing scores is that they can do something about it! By taking a closer look at customers' needs and expectations and by using analytics to measure what works and doesn't, they can take control of their sites and make them work even harder for their businesses into 2014 and beyond."