As retailers gear up for Black Friday sales, a new survey shows that Big W and Kogan are at the bottom of a new ranking by consumer group Choice that rated them on several criteria including customer service, range of products, and value for money.

A survey of 3,500 shoppers who bought an appliance in the past 12 months showed that the JB Hi-Fi-acquired E&S Trading and Appliances Online are the most favoured, while Big W and Kogan at the other end of the list.

Big W was rated the worst in-store appliance retailer, with a score of 62 out of 100.

“Our survey respondents said it was difficult to find customer service in store, and it also scored low for the range of products and brands available,” said Matthew Steen, Choice’s director of reviews and testing.

 

Among online retailers, Kogan was rated as the worst e-commerce store for appliances, with an overall score of just 59 out of 100. “[Kogan] received the lowest score in the after-sales service category with a poor 35 per cent,” Steen said. “Survey respondents also expressed that deliveries were sometimes slow.”

News of Kogan’s poor performance comes as the company held its AGM on Friday where the company’s chair told shareholders that Kogan had served more than 2.6 million customers in FY 24. Its share price has dropped more than 7 per cent since the start of the year even though it recorded an adjusted EBITDA of $40 million.

Apart from Kogan and Big W, Myer shoppers added that they were not impressed with the store’s value for money, Kmart respondents rated the range of products, customer service and layout of the store lower.

While Appliances Online was considered favourably by the survey’s respondents, so was E&S Trading which won for best in-store experience for an appliance retailer, with an overall score of 80 out of 100.

Choice noted that the retailer was offering a superior range (87 per cent) and value for money (80 per cent). But where it really stood out was customer service, both before and after the sale.

They scored 88 out of 100 on customer service broadly and 91 per cent on “after-sales service”.