With Barnes & Noble and Amazon leading the way, customer satisfaction with e-commerce in the United States has reached near-record levels, according to American Customer Satisfaction Index survey results released Tuesday. Online businesses continue to satisfy consumers at a significantly higher rate than “offline” businesses and services, the survey found.

Using improved product images, side-by-side comparisons and forums allowing customers to write product reviews, online businesses have managed to provide an experience that rivals that of walking into a store and inspecting goods in person, says Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results, who analyzed the e-commerce results for the ACSI. The round-the-clock availability of the Internet doesn’t hurt, either, he notes.

“What new information technology allows us to do is much better matching between buyers and sellers. It’s much easier for buyers to find appropriate sellers [and vice-versa],” says Professor Claes Fornell, director of the University of Michigan’s National Quality Research Center, which compiles and analyzes the ACSI data.

The ACSI surveys 80,000 customers of various companies and publishes consumer satisfaction rates based on a 100-point scale that represents the satisfaction level of an average customer, according to Fornell.

The e-commerce score in the fourth quarter of 2006 was 80.0, up from 79.6 the previous year and close to its highest score of 80.8, achieved in 2003. E-commerce in 2006 scored higher than all other service sectors measured by the ACSI, including offline retail, accommodation and food services, health care, cable television and phone service, utilities, and finance and insurance. E-commerce also outpaced e-business, which includes portals, search engines, and news and information sites.

The e-commerce category includes e-retail, online auctions, online brokerage and online travel companies. E-retail posted the highest customer satisfaction scores with Barnes & Noble (88) and Amazon (87) leading the way.

On average, Internet retail scored 5.1 points higher than general retail in 2000, and is now scoring 8.6 points higher, according to Freed.

“We are seeing that gap widen,” he says.

The e-retail scores probably will not grow much more, according to Freed. “It’s going to be tough for the online space to grow significantly because they’re at a very high level, they’re the highest performing right now.”