In July, Roy Morgan's research shows that Costco was Australia's leading discount department store with a customer satisfaction of 88.6 per cent. Meanwhile, rivals Target and Kmart were on 88.5 per cent and 88.4 percent respectively.
Michele Levine, CEO of Roy Morgan, has said Costco is the third discount store to taste victory (Kmart and Target being the first two) in the monthly award so far in 2018.
"Costco's victory came by a whisker with a customer satisfaction rating of 88.6 per cent was only a hair's breadth ahead of rivals Target and Kmart,"
"It comes as the American retailer has unveiled plans for an ambitious expansion with a huge new distribution centre set to open in Sydney's west next year signalling an expanded online retail presence."
Monthly winner Costco increased 1.7 per cent within 12 months while Target rose 1.5 per cent and Best & Less rose 1.8 per cent - signalling the biggest improvement.
"Amazon recently became only the second company to top a market capitalisation of $1 trillion," explained Ms Levine, showing that stores were taking the threat posed by Amazon seriously.
"In an increasingly competitive environment with discount department stores facing increasing competition from online retailers such as Amazon, the big two department stores Myer and David Jones, specialist niche retailers and of course each other, maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction and building a reputation of trust is key."
This latest research is based on face-to-face interviews with over 50,000 Australians each year in their own homes. Over 9,000 interviews are with people who shop at a discount department store in an average of four weeks.
Last month, it was revealed by Roy Morgan that German discount supermarket chain Aldi was the most trusted brand in Australia for two consecutive months.
Ms Levine explained, "The success of German discount supermarket chain Aldi provides a stunning example of how building a reputation for trust and dependability is solid bedrock upon which to build a successful business,"
"Aldi has consistently been rated as one of Australia's most trusted brands by the Roy Morgan Net Trust Survey. Not only does Aldi score highly for trust, it also has a negligible level of "distrust" – the key to a high Net Trust Score (NTS)."
"In fact, as our most recent NTS results show Aldi is now the most trusted brand in Australia – across all industries."
