Play.com, Amazon and eBay have been voted the best online retailers for the period leading up to Christmas.

The sites took the first three places in a customer satisfaction survey focused on the performance of the UK's top web stores.

More than 10,000 respondents rated retailers for quality, merchandise, prices and site experience.

British chains Marks and Spencer, Tesco and John Lewis were ranked in the top 10. But the average satisfaction rating of 66 on a 100-point scale for all UK stores was 11 per cent lower than that of US rivals.

Poor performance from UK retailers could impact on the whole online sector, said Larry Freed, chief executive of intelligence firm ForeSee Results, which commissioned the survey.

"Sites with 60 points or below are failing to satisfy shoppers, eroding loyalty and are missing a tremendous opportunity to leverage the web channel to improve their bottom line," said Freed.

"They are holding back further adoption of web purchasing for the rest of the retail market."

WHSmith, La Redoute and B&Q were the lowest-placed UK sites.