Online retailers are doing a better job communicating with their customers, but they still gather and re-use personal information without permission, according to the Third Quarter 2006 Online Customer Respect Study of Retailers.

The study, conducted by The Customer Respect Group, analyzed 51 major US retail companies and found that the industry as a whole scored a 6.2 on the Customer Respect Index's 10-point scale. Five of the 51 companies did well enough to gain an "excellent" designation: Sears Roebuck, Payless Shoesource, L.L. Bean, CVS and Wal-Mart. Saks was the best site interms of communications; Sears Roebuck was deemed the most trusted Web site; and Walgreens was seen as best overall for site usability.

According to The Customer Respect Group, online retailers are much more willing to deal with individual questions and e-mails from consumers than they were last year. In the area of communications, retailers scored an average of 6.6 -- compared to an average for all industries of 4.9. Nearly half of the companies studied performed exceptionally well in communications, which for most industries is the area they score lowest. The best were Saks, Newegg, Footlocker, L.L.Bean and Victoria's Secret.

According to The Customer Respect Group:

- Ninety two percent of e-mails sent by researchers to retailers got a response. All industries combined averaged an 81 percent response rate;

- Of those responses, 69 percent were received within one day. The response rate for all industries combined was 52 percent;

- And 91 percent of the responses were deemed helpful and relevant. For all industries combined, just 64 percent were seen as helpful.

Despite those positive findings, online retailers were also found to still be collecting and re-using data from customers without getting their permission first. Online retailers sought more personal data from consumers who submitted questions than did companies in other industries, according to the survey. In fact, one-fifth of online retailers required consumers to fill in 10 or more fields when posing a question, according to the report. Other findings included:

- Twenty seven percent of Web sites required full registration or logon before providing full price quotes online;

- Forty three percent of the sites shared personal data with other companies without the express permission of the customer; and

- Seventy six percent of sites routinely re-used personal data for ongoing marketing campaigns.

- Sears, Payless, Radio Shack and Lowes are the sites consumers felt were the most trustworthy.

Finally, while most online retail sites generally scored well on usability, the industry is not doing enough to support a broad spectrum of users, the report said. The industry scored a 5.2 on the 10-point scale when it came to support for older machines, dial-up connections and users with visual and mobility difficulties and other accessibility issues. Just 6 percent of online retail sites had home pages of less than 150KB, meaning 94 percent were almost inaccessible for dial-up users. And just 14 percent consistently used high-contrast colors to help people who were visually impaired or color-blind, according to the survey. Good performers in that category were Banana Republic, Staples and Walgreens. "Retailers see online customers as strong business prospects -- more than any other industry," said Terry Golesworthy, president of The Customer Respect Group. "However, there is growing concern among users about the integrity of their personal information.

"While price and value still rank highest in choosing vendors, trust is becoming a major factor, especially because customer loyalty is limited in the retail industry," he said. "This might start to affect click-through and conversion rates."