Online shopping was the retail industry’s life preserver during the 2009 holiday season.

That was solidified today when Ann Arbor-based ForeSee Results released its E-Retail Satisfaction Index, which shows online shoppers were more satisfied than ever this year.

Online shoppers' satisfaction increased 7 percent this year, ForeSee Results found, according to the New York Times. NYT reported:

ForeSee Results CEO Larry Freed had predicted that online retail sales could top 10 percent this holiday season.

Highly satisfied shoppers are 61 percent more likely to buy from the retailer again and 70 percent more likely to recommend the site to friends, the report found. Not surprisingly, low prices were most important to online shoppers this year. But they also care about other things, like the supply of merchandise and how well the site functions.

The news comes after various sources reported this week that online retail sales grew 15.5 percent this holiday season. That’s nearly double the 8 percent rate projected by Forrester Research. It also comes after a pre-holiday season study by Nielsen found that only 4 percent of consumers planned to spend more online this year.

ForeSee Results CEO Larry Freed told AnnArbor.com in November he wouldn’t be surprised if online retail sales jumped more than 10 percent this year.

“Consumers are pretty resilient,” he said.

Contact AnnArbor.com’s Nathan Bomey at (734) 623-2587 or nathanbomey@annarbor.com. You can also follow him on Twitter.