JB Hi-Fi tops Furniture/ Electrical store satisfaction ahead of The Good Guys
JB Hi-Fi is now Australia’s leading furniture and electrical retailer with a customer satisfaction rating of 92% in the year to March 2019, up 2% points from a year ago.
Just behind JB Hi-Fi in second place are stablemate The Good Guys with a customer satisfaction rating of 90%, up 1% point from a year ago. The strong performance for the two JB Hi-Fi owned brands comes as the retailer announced a strong result for the March quarter earlier this week with sales growth across key markets despite the challenging retail conditions.
2018 Roy Morgan Annual Customer Satisfaction Award Winner IKEA was in equal second on 90%, down 2% points on a year ago, and just ahead of some big improvers all on 89%.
The biggest improvement over the past year came from Betta Home Living/Betta Electrical which increased customer satisfaction 7% points to 89%. Also in equal fourth is Freedom, up 4% points to 89% and Harvey Norman which is unchanged from a year ago on 89%.
Roy Morgan Furniture/Electrical Store Customer Satisfaction March 2019
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia, April 2017 – March 2018, n=15,067 and April 2018 – March 2019. n=14,722. Base: Australians 14+.
JB Hi-Fi attracts more men but has higher satisfaction amongst women
Just under 30% of Australians have visited a furniture/electrical store in the last 4 weeks, accounting for over 6 million customers. Men account for nearly 3.3 million of those customers, with women comprising the remaining 2.7 million.
Interestingly, while JB Hi-Fi attracts significantly more men than women (just under 2 million men compared to 1.3 million women), their customer satisfaction is higher among women than men. Women give the market leader a customer satisfaction rating of 95% compared to the 91% awarded by men shopping at JB Hi-Fi.
By comparison the gender breakdown of Ikea’s customer base is reversed. Nearly 530,000 women shop at IKEA compared to just under 380,000 men. However there is no difference in how the genders regards the customer service at Ikea with both women and men awarding the Swedish brand 90% customer satisfaction.
Harvey Norman appeals to older Australians while Ikea popular with the young
Analysing the age profile of furniture and electrical stores provides important information to understand how different stores can derive the most value from their unique customer bases.
Over 1.6 million Australians aged 35-49 year olds shop at a furniture or electrical store in an average four weeks comprising nearly 27% of the overall market for furniture and electrical stores and making this age group the largest in the marketplace. This age group are the leading patrons by sheer numbers of the top three JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys and Ikea.
However, in contrast to their competitors, Harvey Norman attracts an older demographic, with over 700,000 of their nearly 1.2 million customer base aged over 50, split fairly evenly between the two older age groups of 50-64 year olds and those aged 65+.
By comparison, IKEA appeals more to the younger Australians with a much higher proportion of their customers aged 14-24 year old than their competitors (over a fifth of their total customer base).
Michele Levine, CEO of Roy Morgan, says:
“JB Hi-Fi has reclaimed their Customer Satisfaction throne from Ikea, winning Roy Morgan’s March Customer Satisfaction Award for furniture and electrical stores with 92% customer satisfaction just ahead of stablemate The Good Guys and rival Ikea both on 90%.
“Competition in the furniture and electrical store market is fierce with three retailers dead-heating in equal fourth with a customer satisfaction of 89%. The retailers just missing out on a podium finish in March include Betta Home Living/Betta Electrical which had the biggest annual increase of 7% points to 89%, Freedom and Harvey Norman.
“When it comes to customer service and the customer experience, businesses have to decide who they want to target and what they will excel at to drive customer growth and retention.
“JB Hi-Fi has a wide range of top-end electronic products at competitive pricing which has a strong appeal to Australians proud of their prosperity and achievements and willing to spend up big to get what they want. Roy Morgan’s psychographic profiling tool Helix Personas identifies these big spenders as the ‘Leading Lifestyles’ community and they comprise nearly a third of JB Hi-Fi’s overall customer base.
“Ikea’s strong focus on customer experience is exemplified with a unique layout to their stores which guides customers through different product offerings and the iconic Swedish brand’s reputation for great value. These qualities attract young culturally diverse and trend-focused Millennials and Gen Z consumers which Roy Morgan Helix Personas identifies as the valuable ‘Metrotechs’ community.
“Understanding the psychographic profile of their customers, and the customers of their competitors, is vital to the success of any business in any industry. To understand more about the consumer markets in furniture, electronics, or any other major industry, don’t hesitate to contact Roy Morgan to gain your competitive advantage.”
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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 |
