American Consumer rates Amazon.com and High Roller Toys, Tops in Customer Satisfaction.

San Francisco--For the 3^rd consecutive year, Amazon.com is rated #1 in Customer Satisfaction by American Consumer, sharing this year’s top honors with online catalog newcomer, High Roller Toys.

“It’s no surprise that Amazon is at the top, once again,” said Michelle Ryder, Director of Research for American Consumer. “Amazon’s customer satisfaction rating is consistently high in all of our polling. Consumers know and trust Amazon.com, and have for over a decade.”

The shocker, according to industry experts is the emergence of High Roller Toys, the online purveyor of unique gifts for men and women, as the #1 outlet for unusual and luxury gift items, knocking off perennial favorite, The Sharper Image.

“High Roller Toys is having phenomenal success by every measure,” said Alan Parker of GiftGeek, the independent consumer products rating service which follows High Roller Toys. “In terms of quality, selection, value, and customer service, HRT’s numbers are through the roof with consumers, propelling them to the first tier of online catalog merchants in less than a year of operation.”

When asked about the overnight success of the company he founded, High Roller Toys president, Brian Gidda, pointed to value, trust, and vision as the lynchpins of his strategy.

“We cannot compete solely on price. Some of the larger companies have buying advantages that we don't. Rather we look to provide value in other ways.

Online shopping is the wave of the future. It offers so many advantages over brick and mortar shopping--advertising costs, physical building costs, shop from home, no sales tax, etc. It's my belief that those online shops that learn to create trust for the shopper will prosper in coming years. Once trust is established, it becomes difficult for brick and mortar to compete. That's now the key,” said Gidda.

“Still, to get to the level of Amazon.com is no simple feat,“ added American Consumer’s, Ryder.

“The internet has changed the playing field,” Gidda explained. “ . . . and some of the ways we're now promoting products--online articles, press releases, social networks, blogs, will take the place of traditional catalog advertising.”

That would be where vision comes in.

For more information, contact AmericanConsumer@USA.com