The top gainers compared to last year's results were Sears, reaching a score of 73 on a 7.4% gain, and J.C. Penney, which came in at 76, after improving by 7%. Other strong-performing online retailers with a major store presence were Old Navy, rising 6.8% to a 79, and Target, bumping up 5.7% to a 74.

Overall, Netflix was followed by online behemoth Amazon.com, which had a overall score of 84 and rose 2.4% from last year's holiday season, recording the same gain this year as Netflix. The survey, based on the responses of 10,500 households, according to ForeSee, ranked sites on experience, merchandise, brand and price.

Pottery Barn was the brick-and-mortar retailer to post the biggest slide, falling 3.9%, to 73. Posting flat results were Banana Republic, Costco, L.L.Bean, Wal-Mart and Williams-Sonoma.