Australian online shoppers have access to the world’s biggest department stores – but they prefer to buy from local outlets according to customer satisfaction ratings out Monday.

The Canstar Blue customer satisfaction ratings for Online Department Stores revealed almost three quarters (71 per cent) of consumers surveyed used local sites more often than international sites when buying online.

Canstar Blue’s Rebecca Logan said the results stood in contrast to the common perception that online shoppers drive spending offshore.

“Most people see online shopping as an opportunity for offshore retailers to capture Australia’s comparatively buoyant consumer dollar,” Logan said.

“We’ve seen considerable discussion about the impact of the GST on online shopping but we have not seen those concerns realised in this survey.”

“Whether that says more about the efforts of our retailers to keep their prices down or more about the nature of consumers is not evident.”

The Canstar Blue customer satisfaction ratings rank popular brands across a range of fields, yielding consumer insights and category winners.

Logan said DealsDirect took out the Online Department Store category recording five star customer satisfaction levels across the board.

“According to customers surveyed, DealsDirect stood out in all areas including overall satisfaction as well as value for money, range of products, speed of delivery and price among other things,”
 she said.

Kmart Online scored five stars for its range of brands with Target Online, Big W Online, oo.com.au and Myer Online all receiving a mix of three and four stars for customer satisfaction.

The survey was undertaken in conjunction with professional market researchers, Colmar Brunton who Canstar Blue regularly commissions to survey 2500 Australian consumers across a range of categories to measure and track customer satisfaction.

Logan said brands must reach a minimum threshold of at least 30 responses to be eligible for inclusion in the surveys.

“The feedback received is from people who have first-hand experience with the products or categories they are rating. This is useful for meeting the growing demand from consumers who are increasingly turning to the experience and reviews of others to guide their purchases.”

The founder of DealsDirect.com.au was ecstatic to be rated higher than his predominantly bricks and mortar rivals. 

“Since our very first day of operation almost a decade ago, the entire DealsDirect.com.au team has worked tirelessly to deliver quality customer service, so to be recognised by our customers through Canstar Blue’s survey is very satisfying,” said Paul Greenberg, executive chairman and co-founder of DealsDirect.com.au.

DealsDirect.com.au boasts more than 10,000 products across 21 categories. The company’s 40,000sqm combined warehouse and distribution centre in Ingleburn, NSW is the largest and most efficient ecommerce distribution centre in Australia, capable of shipping 30,000 parcels per day through Australia Post.

The results of the Canstar Blue customer satisfaction survey of Online Department Stores are from 854 respondents within the survey group who had purchased an item from an online department store in the past 12 months.

The full Canstar Blue results are available at www.canstarblue.com.au.

For more information about the Canstar Blue Awards, visit  canstarblue.com.

For more information about Deals Direct.com.au, visit www.dealsdirect.com.au, call 1800 332 548. Check-out the Deals Direct Facebook page or follow @DealsDirect on Twitter.