Buying clothes online: Ratings of 39 Web sites, plus tips to ensure a good buy.(FEATURE)(Survey)

Most people still buy clothes in actual stores, but the tide might be turning. Last year, Americans ordered more apparel, accessories, and shoes online--almost $23 billion worth--than any other category of merchandise, even computers and other electronics.

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High gas prices and a dread of holiday-shopping crowds will no doubt feed the trend. And it's a trend that makes sense.

In a new survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, 85 percent of the more than 25,000 respondents were very or completely satisfied with their online clothes-shopping experience. That's a higher satisfaction score than that for most other services we've measured recently. Only 3 percent expressed any dissatisfaction. People over age 40 were generally more satisfied than younger respondents.

There were no real dogs among the 39 clothiers we've rated. Standouts, including L.L.Bean, Zappos, and Lands' End, tended to clothes provide superior clothing quality, the most accurate descriptions and sizing information, an informative Web site, and an easy way to order and return items. They also gave a big bang for the buck. For instance, respondents said the value at L.L.Bean was excellent for almost two-thirds of their buys. Just 27 percent said the same for Victoria's Secret.

Overall, respondents called clothing quality excellent for 59 percent of their buys; they were dissatisfied with quality just 5 percent of the time.

Shoppers encountered relatively few problems, and most of those were resolved quickly. In fact, in an earlier poll we conducted, billing errors and incorrectly filled orders were so rarely reported that we didn't need to ask about them for this survey.