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What do consumers dislike about the online shopping experience?

It’s simple. Almost a quarter of those polled by Opinion Research Corp. in its latest Ouch Point survey cited items that bear little resemblance to their image on the Internet.

Almost the same number mentioned inability to speak to a customer service representative.

Amazon.com was named by 27% as the firm offering the best online shopping experience. But 21% could not identify a leader in this area.

"This suggests that there is ample opportunity to create competitive differentiation and to establish best practice in the online shopping space," said Linda Shea, global managing director of customer strategies at Opinion Research, in a statement.

Meanwhile, 19% of those surveyed indicated they were most annoyed by learning that items are back-ordered or out of stock after they are in the cart.

Another 14% cited Web sites that malfunction as the payment is being processed.

Moving to the single digits, 8% said they disliked unclear return policies, 6% mentioned unclear shipping information and 6% specified not getting an acknowledgement after the order has been placed.

Opinion Research, an InfoUSA company, surveyed 1,092 respondents late in March. The above findings are based on almost 90% who shop online.