Need to know
- Over 3500 CHOICE supporters answered our survey on the best and worst electronics retailers in Australia
- Appliances Online has the best online shopping experience, three surveys in a row
- e&s Trading has the best instore shopping experience, with Retravision, Winnings and Betta not far behind
When you're in the market for a new washing machine or TV, do you like the ease that comes with buying online from the comfort of your own home? Or do you prefer the experience of shopping instore and sizing up the products first-hand before you commit?
With the rising cost of living, good value for money is a major selling point. But which stores have the widest range of products? And which ones can you count on for good customer service?
We asked more than 3500 CHOICE supporters about their experiences buying appliances in the past 12 months, and whether they were satisfied with the stores they visited. For physical stores, we asked participants to rate the range of products and brands, value for money, customer service, delivery and after-sales service.
For online stores, we asked much the same, but added ease of using the website, payment options, and the returns process. We included results for stores that had over 50 responses.
Best and worst brick-and-mortar stores
Best shops for electronics in 2024
Overall scores
e&s Trading (n=58) 89%
Retravision (n=69) 84%
Winning Appliances (n=66) 83%
Betta Electrical / Betta Home Living (n=98) 80%
Bing Lee (n=65) 78%
The Good Guys (n=293) 73%
JB Hi-Fi (n=235) 71%
Harvey Norman (n=327) 70%
Ikea (n=52) 68%
Bunnings (n=120) 68%
Officeworks (n=87) 68%
Aldi (n=87) 67%
Myer (n=54) 65%
Kmart (n=56) 64%
BigW (n=118) 62%
Range of products and brands available
e&s Trading (n=58) 87%
Retravision (n=69) 79%
Winning Appliances (n=66) 86%
Betta Electrical / Betta Home Living (n=98) 72%
Bing Lee (n=65) 76%
The Good Guys (n=293) 77%
JB Hi-Fi (n=235) 76%
Harvey Norman (n=327) 76%
Ikea (n=52) 66%
Bunnings (n=120) 71%
Officeworks (n=87) 70%
Aldi (n=87) 51%
Myer (n=54) 67%
Kmart (n=56) 56%
BigW (n=118) 57%
Value for money
e&s Trading: 80%
Retravision: 80%
Winning Appliances: 75%
Betta Electrical / Betta Home Living: 75%
Bing Lee: 76%
The Good Guys: 74%
JB Hi-Fi: 71%
Harvey Norman: 66%
Ikea: 79%
Bunnings: 67%
Officeworks: 66%
Aldi: 78%
Myer: 66%
Kmart: 77%
BigW: 67%
Customer service
e&s Trading: 88%
Retravision: 87%
Winning Appliances: 86%
Betta Electrical / Betta Home Living: 83%
Bing Lee: 80%
The Good Guys: 73%
JB Hi-Fi: 72%
Harvey Norman: 72%
Ikea: 64%
Bunnings: 64%
Officeworks: 64%
Aldi: 48%
Myer: 60%
Kmart: 50%
BigW: 50%
After-sales service
e&s Trading: 91%
Winning Appliances: 76%
Betta Electrical / Betta Home Living: 80%
Bing Lee: 75%
The Good Guys: 68%
JB Hi-Fi: 68%
Harvey Norman: 66%
Bunnings: 77%
Officeworks: 64%
Aldi: 61%
Kmart: 68%
Delivery
e&s Trading: 89%
Winning Appliances: 86%
Betta Electrical / Betta Home Living: 81%
Bing Lee: 79%
The Good Guys: 73%
JB Hi-Fi: 73%
Harvey Norman: 71%
Bunnings: 65%
Officeworks: 72%
Aldi: 56%
Kmart: 66%
Best instore overall satisfaction: e&s Trading
e&s Trading took out our coveted top spot, with many people praising its after-sales service, range of products and brands available, and delivery service. e&s Trading after sales service was the stand-out.
The downside of e&s Trading being that they are not nationally available, but primarily in Victoria.
Retravision, Winnings Appliances and Betta also scored well overall.
Retravision's value for money and customer service were high, while their range of products and brands available didn't rate quite as well as e&s Trading and Winnings.
Worst instore overall satisfaction: BigW
Budget department store BigW consistently rated lower than other stores in almost all categories. BigW had low scores for range of products and brands, and many of our survey respondents said it was difficult to find customer service instore.
Best: e&s Trading, Winning Appliances
Almost all the major electronics stores had good scores for product and range availability, the top ones being e&s Trading and Winnings.
Retravision, Betta, Bing Lee and The Good Guys were average.
Worst: Aldi, Kmart and BigW
While their prices are cheap, the range of products and brands at these retailers is limited. It's difficult to get cross-comparison pricing as well, since the products in budget department stores are often own-brand and aren't sold
Best: e&s Trading and Retravision
The big-box stores tend to excel at
offering value for money, but Ikea, Aldi and Kmart were also up there. We consistently see their product pricing lower than many other stores.
Worst: Harvey Norman, Officeworks and Myer
People often make a
conscious decision to buy products at higher prices from some stores based on the
historical service they've received, such as Myer, even though their customer service scores
are average. Some survey respondents commented that they usually only shop here
during sales time to get better prices.
Best: e&s Trading, Retravision and Winnings
These three clearly come out on top in this area, coming in three points ahead of Betta, which earned fourth place. Comments
in our survey often said that the staff were very
helpful and knowledgeable, and if there were any problems with the products
they were quick to resolve them.
Worst: Aldi, Kmart and BigW
Our survey respondents complained about not being
able to find staff, and when they did, the staff didn't have knowledge about the
products they were selling. Some people considered these 'self-help stores', while others complained about the new layout of the stores and how things were centralised.
Best: e&s Trading
We had some glowing recommendations for delivery from e&s Trading. A few people acknowledged
that even though they had issues with delivery, they still gave the store a good
rating because of the way customer service resolved the issue.
Best: e&s Trading
e&s Trading were by far the best performers when it comes to after-sales service. Though comments were absent, we assume these results are based on staff efforts to continue to deliver even after customers have made a purchase.
Other
Commentary around the after-sales service from some retailers referred to the fact that
products failed after a short period of time – and sometimes people just didn't
feel the need to return them as they were so cheap. Other companies returned a mixed bag in the comments for after-sales service.
Pressure to buy extended warranties
We received more than a few comments around extended warranties and how salespeople push them, particularly Harvey Norman. We've researched terms and conditions on extended warranties and in many circumstances found they were useless, so take a look at the T&Cs before you commit to anything.
Our free consumer rights guides are helpful resources for learning more about extended warranties, along with what to do when you have problems with a product or service.
If you feel you've been unduly pressured into accepting an extended warranty, you can lodge a complaint with the ACCC.
Best and worst online stores
Despite some pandemic-fuelled growth in the past two years, online shopping is yet to eclipse shopping instore as our mode of choice, with over 60% of us still making the trek to physical shops to buy our new appliances and electronic goods.
But for those who do prefer the online shopping experience, our survey uncovered some strong feelings about which stores deserve your business.
Best online shops for electronics in 2024
Overall scores
Appliances Online: 86%
Amazon Australia: 87%
Bing Lee: 77%
JB Hi-Fi: 72%
Myer: 72%
eBay Australia: 69%
Officeworks: 68%
The Good Guys: 65%
Harvey Norman: 62%
Kogan: 68%
Range of products and brands available
Appliances Online: 84%
Amazon Australia: 82%
Bing Lee: 77%
JB Hi-Fi: 78%
Myer: 67%
eBay Australia: 81%
Officeworks: 70%
The Good Guys: 75%
Harvey Norman: 75%
Kogan: 74%
Value for money
Appliances Online: 84%
Amazon Australia: 75%
Bing Lee: 77%
JB Hi-Fi: 74%
Myer: 71%
eBay Australia: 75%
Officeworks: 66%
The Good Guys: 74%
Harvey Norman: 65%
Kogan: 70%
Ease of use of website
Appliances Online: 84%
Amazon Australia: 78%
Bing Lee: 76%
JB Hi-Fi: 74%
Myer: 73%
eBay Australia: 76%
Officeworks: 71%
The Good Guys: 72%
Harvey Norman: 69%
Kogan: 67%
Payment options
Appliances Online: 82%
Amazon Australia: 73%
Bing Lee: 77%
JB Hi-Fi: 77%
Myer: 75%
eBay Australia: 76%
Officeworks: 72%
The Good Guys: 76%
Harvey Norman: 72%
Kogan: 69%
Delivery
Appliances Online: 90%
Amazon Australia: 87%
Bing Lee: 77%
JB Hi-Fi: 72%
Myer: 72%
eBay Australia: 69%
Officeworks: 68%
The Good Guys: 65%
Harvey Norman: 62%
Kogan: 68%
Returns process
Appliances Online: 76%
Amazon Australia: 77%
eBay Australia: 56%
After-sales service
Appliances Online: 77%
Amazon Australia: 67%
eBay Australia: 52%
The Good Guys: 49%
Kogan: 35%
Best online shop for overall satisfaction: Appliances Online
Appliances Online topped every online category in our survey. We've had
plenty of good feedback for Appliances Online anecdotally in recent years, and for a relatively young
company (it was founded in 2005)
to have gained so much ground over the past decade is an impressive thing. Though it no doubt helps that its parent company, Winning Group, has been an appliances fixture in Australia for over a century.
Worst online shop for overall
satisfaction: Kogan
At the other end of the spectrum, Kogan scored 27 points lower
than Appliances Online. While there were a few comments around a good experience, mostly the feedback was negative.
Best: Appliances Online and Amazon
Both Appliances Online and Amazon have a great range of products and brands available, according to our survey respondents.
Worst: Myer
When it comes to product range, there's a stark disparity of some 17 percentage points between the top rated and lowest rated electronics stores. Myer has been known for having a massive range of diverse products, but this seems to be changing over time.
Best: Appliances Online
The value for money emphasis was reflected in the commentary for Appliances Online, with survey respondents commonly mentioning the company's willingness to price match, or to have competitive prices online.
Worst: Harvey Norman
Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Harvey Norman, which had some commentary saying prices were seldom discounted.
Best: Appliances Online
Appliances Online had great feedback on its chat assistance, ease of navigating its website, and the fact that you can select the delivery time.
While
there were no terrible websites according to our respondents, Kogan scored 17 percentage points below Appliances Online, just behind Harvey Norman and Office Works.
Best online shop payment options: Appliances Online
No store did poorly in payment options, which you'd expect for ecommerce platforms in 2024.
Best online shop for delivery: Appliances Online
Commentary around delivery for Appliances Online was almost always favourable, with some glowing recommendations and bouquets for delivery drivers, as well as being able to select a delivery window online.
Worst online shop for delivery: Harvey Norman, The Good Guys, Office Works, Kogan and eBay
Delivery time, expense, installation issues, problems with breakages in deliveries (if they arrive at all), delivery windows of a whole day rather than hours – the problems seemed endless with Harvey Norman and The Good Guys. We think they need to take a long hard look at this aspect of their logistics. If other companies can get it right, there's definitely a skills gap at their franchises.
Office Works, Kogan and eBay deliveries were sometimes slow.
Best online shop for returns process: Appliances Online and Amazon Australia
We had some glowing recommendations for both online retailers when it comes to returns, with very few negative comments.
Worst online shop for returns process: eBay
We didn't receive enough survey responses to cover most of the competitors, but those we did cover were always quite a few percentage points behind Appliances Online. eBay, however, was noticeably lower.
Best: Appliances Online
The only retailer to score in the 70s, Appliances Online rated well for after-sales service (though we didn't get enough survey responses to cover several of its competitors).
Worst: Kogan, The Good Guys and eBay
Again, Kogan scored the lowest in the after-sales service category, followed by The Good Guys and eBay.
Extended warranty sold in online stores
One of the things we were disappointed to see is how many
extended warranties are being sold online using pre-selected check boxes – a
deceptive web design, sometimes also called a dark pattern. The ACCC has picked up on this sort of behaviour, flagging the problem as an area where new rules are needed to protect consumers.
When even the airlines succumbed to pressure to stop pre-selecting checkboxes, you have to wonder
what some online stores like Appliances Online are thinking.
While it's not against the law, at CHOICE we think it's dodgy practice for any
industry to use these sorts of deceptive practices to try to impose additional expenses on consumers.
We think it's dodgy practice for any industry to use deceptive practices to try to impose additional expenses on consumers
It's particularly
galling when the extra expense is for an extended warranty, a type of product
that often just sells you rights that you already have for free under the Australian
Consumer Law. Given Appliances Online comes off so well in our survey, we'd expect more from them. At least their sister site, Winning Appliances, doesn't automatically add it on at the point of purchase.
The only stores online that don't push unnecessary and poor-value extended warranties are Amazon, eBay and Myer. Having said that, Amazon tries to influence consumers into purchasing an Amazon Prime account on the way through, as does Kogan in their subscription version as well. Other online retailers offer them but don't default to having the option ticked.
Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.