Amazon, Apple and Argos top online retail customer satisfaction study as Ticketmaster and Ryanair scrape bottom

As well as calculating overall satisfaction, the study allocated points to individual retailers based on the results of almost 10,000 customer survey collected throughout the Christmas shopping periods each year.

Netflix saw the biggest improvement this year, moving up three points to a score of 71, and Ikea also moved up three points to reach a score of 76.

According to ForeSee, a one point increase or decrease could reflect as much as a 10 per cent change either way in revenues.

Larry Freed, CEO at ForeSee, said: “After witnessing the aggregate customer satisfaction score increasing every year we’ve reported on the top 40 UK retailers’ Christmas performance, it’s disappointing to see a drop this year.

“A drop in scores for any site is a result of either retailers not meeting the consumers’ rising expectations, or changes to the sites that turned out to be changes that didn’t improve the customer experience.

“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.”

Ryanair ranked bottom of the table and for the third consecutive year dropped points, from 64 in 2011 to 60 this year.

John Lewis dropped out of the ‘threshold of excellence’ after slipping this year from 80 to 79, but the retailer ranked third best for customer satisfaction overall.

Other retailers in the top 10 included Marks and Spencer, Ikea, Boots and Debenhams.

Thomas Cook and Homebase sat the other end of the scale, both with 69 points.

The data follows a recent report that suggested online retailers are vastly underestimating how slow-responding websites could be turning customers away.