But there's still some work to be done.  MediaPost today reports on a new ranking released this week by the Customer Respect Group that evaluates online store performance.  According to Terry Golesworthy, president of Customer Respect Group, "The biggest change in the last year, is that more and more Web sites are using real-time customer service tools such as pop-up windows and click-to-call features, 'which lets sites help customers with what they're doing right now." Previously, many of the large Web sites offered consumers only a chance to e-mail questions--"a process that usually takes 24 hours and often results in an abandoned shopping cart.'"

Overall, the report found that retailers are leading other industries in general when it comes to customer communication.  According to their findings:

The retail industry was rated best in the area of communicating with online visitors in 2007, scoring 7.0 in Responsiveness, compared to 6.5 scored by the next highest-rated industries -- financial services and telecommunications. The variety of contact methods available to retail customers was one positive factor.

Twenty-two percent of retail sites now provide online chat, compared to the all-industry average of just 12%. Also noted was the emergence of pro-active “chat,” where visitors are invited to engage in a context-sensitive dialog based on their online behavior. “click to call” prompting a telephone call directly from the retailer to the user also showed a strong upward trend as retailers look to limit site abandonment.

Other communication channels remain well supported. Sixty-five percent of e-mail inquiries to retail companies were responded to within a day, compared to 57% among all other industries studied during the year.. Eighty-three percent of inquiries received a helpful reply -- again well ahead of the average of 60%.

However, the report points out that despite some advances, there is still a glaring gap between the way consumers experience a brand online and in-store, and consumers continue to be distrustful of the differences they see in price, benefits and services. In addition to those cross-channel disparities, consumers are still cautious about sites that don't reassure their privacy concerns.