Harris Scarfe tops discount department store customer satisfaction
New research from Roy Morgan shows Harris Scarfe has Australia’s most satisfied discount department store customers, with a satisfaction rating of 91% in September putting it ahead of rivals Kmart and Best & Less, both on 89%. Big W and Costco are in equal fourth on 88%.
These are the latest results from Roy Morgan’s Discount Department Stores Satisfaction Report which is based on in-depth personal interviews conducted face-to-face with over 50,000 Australians each year in their own homes, including more than 8,500 who shop at a discount department store in an average four weeks.
Harris Scarfe, Best & Less and Target Country were the big improvers over the past year
The biggest improvement over the past year came from Harris Scarfe which rose 5% points and Best & Less which is up 3% points. Both chains are owned by the renamed Greenlit Brands (formerly Steinhoff Asia-Pacific).
Just outside the top five in September was Target Country which increased 4% points to 87%, while Big W improved 1% point to 88%. Kmart and Costco are unchanged on a year ago.
The latest victory for Harris Scarfe continues a run of monthly wins that puts the retailer in prime position to claim the year’s overall award for the first time since 2015.
Discount Department Store Customer Satisfaction - Top 5 2018 vs. 2019
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia, Oct. 2017 –Sep. 2018, n= 9,818. Oct. 2018 –Sept. 2019, n = 8,686. Base: Australians aged 14+ who shopped at a discount department store.
Michele Levine, CEO of Roy Morgan, says:
“Harris Scarfe’s victory in the Roy Morgan Discount Department Store Customer Satisfaction Award for September was a result of a big improvement over the year, up 5% points from 86% to 91%.
“Customer satisfaction ratings for Discount Department Stores are at a high level currently, with all top five stores enjoying a rating of at least 88%. These excellent ratings show that traditional retailers Harris Scarfe, Kmart, Best & Less, Costco, Big W and others are taking the threat posed by online retailers seriously.
“In an increasingly competitive environment, with intense competition on price and service from online retailers such as Amazon, maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction and building a reputation of trust is key.”
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Margin of Error
The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.
| Sample Size | Percentage Estimate |
| 40% – 60% | 25% or 75% | 10% or 90% | 5% or 95% | |
| 1,000 | ±3.0 | ±2.7 | ±1.9 | ±1.3 |
| 5,000 | ±1.4 | ±1.2 | ±0.8 | ±0.6 |
| 7,500 | ±1.1 | ±1.0 | ±0.7 | ±0.5 |
| 10,000 | ±1.0 | ±0.9 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 |
| 20,000 | ±0.7 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 |
| 50,000 | ±0.4 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 | ±0.2 |
