AU Foodland SA

Foodland has trumped Coles, Woolworths and Aldi for customers satisfaction during August 2017, according to new research from Roy Morgan.

The South Australian supermarket chain scored 94.4 per cent for customer satisfaction, and was one of only two supermarkets in the country to increase satisfaction of the past year.

While Foodland led the way, Aldi came in second at 92.3 per cent, Woolworths at 90 per cent, Coles at 88.4 per cent and IGA at 84.7 per cent. The scores were tallied in Roy Morgan’s Retail Satisfaction Report – Supermarkets’, based on 12,000 interviews with main grocery buyers each year.

The report also looked at customer loyalty by analysing customers spend, with Woolworths ahead of Coles. Woolworths shoppers spend 70.9 per cent of their grocery spend at Woolworths, ahead of Coles main shoppers who spend 67.4 per cent with Coles. Aldi fell behind with a 55.5 per cent share of its customers spend.

“With increasingly tough competition among supermarkets, it is important to keep track of what customers think in terms of relative satisfaction between the major brands,” said Norman Morris, industry communications director at Roy Morgan Research. “This research has shown that not only is overall satisfaction important but it is necessary to understand how the different sections or departments are performing due to their potential impact on overall satisfaction and customer loyalty.”

'There appears to be plenty of scope to increase supermarket sales if customer loyalty can be improved,” he added. “Increasing the share of customer spend for the major supermarkets has remained a considerable challenge for some time. This is evident by the fact that over the last five years, all of the top five supermarkets have seen a decline in the share of their customers spend, despite various attempts at loyalty programs.”