Making shoppers happy as they hand over the credit card is the name of the game in retail. But while some retailers have mastered the art, others have much further to go.
    Web retailer Amazon.com was bestowed a “Customer’s Choice” award on Thursday by the National Retail Federation, which asked in a survey with American Express which U.S. retailer delivered the best customer service. Nordstrom and L.L Bean rounded out the top three in the survey.
    But some disgruntled shoppers are ready to cut out purchases altogether when customer service goes awry. A Forrester Research study published earlier this week found that 27 percent of shoppers were prepared to cut out holiday gift buying on the Web altogether because of the hassle of returns.
    With about half of surveyed shoppers saying that Web returns were a hassle, Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru warned that, in the age of comparison shopping sites and intensely competitive promotions, it’s not enough anymore to just offer the best price online.
    Nonetheless, online retail sales are expected to rise 23 percent this holiday season — the same increase as from 2004 to 2005– to $27 billion, according to Forrester. 
    One-fifth of consumers say they’ll do the bulk of their shopping on the Web this year, the survey found.
    But returning gifts may not be the only sticking point for Web skeptics. Some fifteen percent of surveyed shoppers said their holiday gifts came late in the mail last year, according to the study.