The American Customer Satisfaction Index, founded at the University of Michigan, has released its annual ecommerce report after measuring responses from product and service evaluations for 225 U.S. companies in 47 industries. Based on a 100-point scale, customer satisfaction among ecommerce sites made a small increase of one percent, to a total score of 80.1. Total ecommerce sales rose 16 percent to $194.3 billion in 2011, reveals data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Among the highlights were ecommerce operators Amazon and Netflix. Amazon remains the top online retailer in customer service, though its overall score dropped slightly. The company invests heavily in subsidizing the cost of shipping and new technology, such as its e-readers, to keep consumer prices low. Netflix, on the other hand, was rocked by customer upset over last minute service changes and price increases. The customer satisfaction score of the video rental company fell 14 percent in the last year, one of the largest drops in the report's history.

This piece is adapted from an original article on CRM Daily.com.