Which New Zealand Home Appliance stores are maximising their market share online? Find out which online home appliance and whiteware stores are taking the lead in organic search and how they’re doing it. FIRST has investigated the organic search engine rankings for NZ consumer searches focused on buying home appliances and whiteware, utilising FIRST’s Ranking Based Reach (RBR) analysis framework. In addition, a consumer survey was carried out to discover which home appliance stores are popular with Kiwis wishing to buy products online. In this report we discovered: The home appliances and whiteware market is highly competitive, urging players to optimise their RBR to get ahead of their competition. Noelleeming.co.nz has set a clear course to follow, but also fisherpaykel.com/nz (who is a manufacturer), briscoes.co.nz, and harveynorman.co.nz are currently the most visible sites in the digital home appliances and whiteware landscape, achieving a dominant share of voice thanks to strong positions in organic results. More than half of all home appliance and whiteware websites have a low organic RBR score, under 1% (!). This represents a big opportunity for natural search optimisation. A considered search strategy that integrates both organic and paid search should be a key customer acquisition channel for home appliance stores, driving revenue and growing the store’s share of digital spend. Popular search phrases are missing from most sites and in most cases very little is being done with organic search. FIRST uses its bespoke metric called RBR (Ranking Based Reach) to estimate how well each company is ranking in search engines. RBR provides a simple way to compare a website’s search engine rankings with its competitors. RBR is an estimate of the percentage of available search traffic a website will receive for a set of phrases – this gives the sites share of search or reach. It is weighted based on the popularity of each search phrase and the relative click through rate (CTR) of each ranking position.

1. Searching for Home Appliances Online
Which websites are maximising their market share?

2. Calculating Share of Search
• Rankings Based Reach (RBR)* provides a simple way to compare a
website’s search engine rankings with its competitors.
• RBR is an estimate of the percentage of available search traffic a
website will receive for a set of phrases – this gives the site’s share
of search or reach.
• It is weighted based on the popularity of each search phrase and the
relative click through rate (CTR) of each ranking position.
*Source: Rankings Based Reach (RBR) is a methodology developed by FIRST., http://www.firstdigital.co.nz
Copyright © FIRST., part of the BeyondD Pty Ltd Group. http://www.firstdigital.co.nz
2

3. Selected sites
The following New Zealand home appliance and whiteware sites were selected for
Ranking Based Reach (RBR) organic search performance analysis.
Sites
100percent.co.nz
homekit.co.nz
albanyextreme.co.nz
lvmartin.co.nz
applianceshed.co.nz
magnessbenrow.co.nz
bettaelectrical.co.nz
mitre10mega.co.nz
briscoes.co.nz
noelleeming.co.nz
bunnings.co.nz
smithscity.co.nz
farmers.co.nz
thegoodguys.co.nz
fisherpaykel.com/nz
thewarehouse.co.nz
harveynorman.co.nz
Copyright © FIRST., part of the BeyondD Pty Ltd Group. http://www.firstdigital.co.nz
3

4. What are people searching for?
In order to identify which websites are leading in organic search FIRST researched
frequently used home appliances and whiteware related phrases.
Search Phrase
Local
searches per
month
Search Phrase
Local
searches per
month
blender
2,400
portable air conditioner
390
heat pumps
2,400
coffee machine
320
vacuum cleaners
1,300
kettle
320
washing machine
1,300
toaster
320
dishwasher
880
whiteware
320
fridge
880
dryer
260
fan
720
steam cleaner
260
gas heaters
720
air conditioner
170
kitchen appliances
720
home appliances
110
microwave
720
kitchen scales
110
freezer
390
gas cooktops
90
homewares
390
ironing boards
20
ovens
390
Total searches per month (NZ)
15,900
Total searches per year
190,800
Source: Google Keyword Tool, New Zealand exact match, Feb 2014
Copyright © FIRST., part of the BeyondD Pty Ltd Group. http://www.firstdigital.co.nz
4

5. Search trends
The chart below illustrates interest in key search terms “fridge” and “freezer” in New Zealand over the last 7 years.
100
90
80
The search volumes for these two search terms are
constantly rising. We can see that the term “fridge” is quite a
bit ahead compared to the term “freezer”.
Companies selling whiteware should focus on search
terms that are trending upwards, have decent search
volume and 'search intent'. Targeting terms like 'fridge'
and 'freezer' should be a part of a successful SEO
strategy to improve market presence.
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
01/07 06/07 11/07 04/08 09/08 02/09 07/09 12/09 05/10 10/10 03/11 08/11 01/12 06/12 11/12 04/13 09/13
fridge
freezer
Source: Relative total keyword performance on a normalised scale of 1 to 100, Google Trends, New Zealand, February 2014
Copyright © FIRST., part of the BeyondD Pty Ltd Group. http://www.firstdigital.co.nz
5

6. Search trends for “home appliances” and “homewares”
As the search trends show, there is growing
online demand for people searching for home
appliances and wares.
120
Companies selling homewares and home
appliances can capture a lot of this search
demand by increasing their online
presence for related searches.
100
80
60
40
20
0
home appliances
homewares
Source: Relative total keyword performance on a normalised scale of 1 to 100, Google Trends, New Zealand, February 2014
Copyright © FIRST., part of the BeyondD Pty Ltd Group. http://www.firstdigital.co.nz
6

7. Harvey Norman beats its strongest competitors online
The chart illustrates that brand search terms like Noel Leeming, Briscoes and Harvey Norman show strong seasonal trends with peaks in
the Christmas season. As we can see, Briscoes seems to be catching up to Noel Leeming. Harvey Norman is leading the way. The Good
Guys have improved their online brand reach recently. 100 Percent should invest in natural search optimisation if they want to catch up.
To combat being left behind, runner-up stores (for home appliances and whiteware) need to drive consumer brand recognition
via search, display, social and email remarketing campaigns.
Source: Relative total keyword performance on a normalised scale of 1 to 100, Google Trends, New Zealand, February 2014
Copyright © FIRST., part of the BeyondD Pty Ltd Group. http://www.firstdigital.co.nz
7

8. Search trends for “nespresso machine”
120
100
Retail stores not ranking for “nespresso machine” in the
Google search engine are limiting their possibilities for
online sales as this search term is playing an
increasingly important role for consumer buying
decisions. The search volume has been constantly rising
over the last few years.
Stores selling nespresso machines, therefore need
to consider niche consumer search behaviour, such
as “nespresso machine” search terms, in their
content marketing strategies.
80
60
40
20
0
2011-01
2011-06
2011-11
2012-04
2012-09
2013-02
2013-07
2013-12
nespresso machine
Source: Relative total keyword performance on a normalised scale of 1 to 100, Google Trends, New Zealand, February 2014
Copyright © FIRST., part of the BeyondD Pty Ltd Group. http://www.firstdigital.co.nz
8

9. Google: Search engine results page 1
What the consumer sees: The top of the Google search results page for a search on “home appliances”
Up to 3 keywords- related
Google ads for paid search
terms lead the Google
search results page: Able
Appliances and HomeKit
rank at first and second
position followed by
RentRite for the search
term “home appliances”.
Able Appliances do not
offer any small devices as
kettle, fans or toasters and
mainly offer whiteware.
RentRite on third position
rents whiteware items.
HomeKit ranks on highest
position of shops that offer
whiteware and home
appliances online and was
recently founded in 2009.
In the paid search Noel
Leeming ranks at fifth
position just before The
Good Guys. Ranking
on the paid top
positions for the search
term “home
appliances” is highly
competitive.
Under the organic search
results Fisher & Paykel
(who is a manufacturer)
ranks very good on
second position. Noel
Leeming ranks on 9th
position followed by Betta
Electrical (not seen on this
slide).
Copyright © FIRST., part of the BeyondD Pty Ltd Group. http://www.firstdigital.co.nz
9

10. The importance of top rankings
40%
paid
organic
35%
Proportion of clicks
30%
35% of users click
on the top organic
search result
25%
20%
15%
Almost 95% of organic
traffic goes to the top 10
results
10%
5%
0%
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Search engine position
Source: Chikita, 2010 (Organic Search) & Accuracast 2009 (Paid Search)
Copyright © FIRST., part of the BeyondD Pty Ltd Group. http://www.firstdigital.co.nz
10

11. Rankings Based Reach: Natural Search
50%
Rankings Based Reach
40%
The RBR leader is far
ahead compared to it’s
competitors with an
excellent RBR of over
40%. Overall, only two
companies have a RBR
over 10%, which means
that there is still a lot of
room for improvement.
Nearly all companies will need
sustained focus on natural search
optimisation should they wish to
challenge Noel Leeming as the
market leader online.
30%
20%
10%
HomeKit is only selling
home appliances and
whiteware online, but is
ranking low for relevant
search terms in the
organic search. A
successful strategy should
focus on improving their
RBR.
These websites can compete by
optimising for highly relevant and popular
search phrases.
MASSIVE OPPORTUNITY
0%
* includes all websites under the relevant domain name (eg, including www. and shop.)
Copyright © FIRST., part of the BeyondD Pty Ltd Group. http://www.firstdigital.co.nz
Source of ranking data: Google New Zealand, www.google.co.nz, February 2014.
11

12. Consumer Research: Brand Recognition
Almost half of all mentioned store brand
names have a market recognition of more
than 90%. Starting with Harvey Norman
as the market leader, followed by The
Warehouse and Noel Leeming.
Question 1: Which of the following store brand names do
you recognise? (Tick all that apply).
100.00%
90.00%
Although most Kiwis know
Harvey Norman, only about 27%
of all New Zealanders tend to
buy home appliances and
whiteware there (see next slide).
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Copyright © FIRST., part of the BeyondD Pty Ltd Group. http://www.firstdigital.co.nz
This representative survey was carried out by 3Di Research on
the Great Sites platform Feb 2014 (n=2,470).
12

13. Consumer Research: Purchasing Behaviour (Offline)
100.00%
90.00%
Although the brand recognition of
Noel Leeming is nearly as high as
the one of The Warehouse (see
previous slide), only 33% of people
tend to shop there.
Question 2: From which of the following stores have you
purchased in the last 3 months in person (offline)? (Tick
all that apply).
80.00%
70.00%
60.00%
50.00%
40.00%
82% of all Kiwis
recognize Smiths City,
(see previous slide) but
only 1 of 14 New
Zealanders is shopping
there.
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Copyright © FIRST., part of the BeyondD Pty Ltd Group. http://www.firstdigital.co.nz
This representative survey was carried out by 3Di Research on
the Great Sites platform Feb 2014 (n=2,470).
13

14. Consumer Research: Purchasing Behaviour (Online)
14.00%
12.00%
About 12% of Kiwis
buy products from The
Warehouse online.
Briscoes and Noel
Leeming are just
making one fourth of
online sales compared
to it’s strongest
competitor.
Question 3: From which of the following stores have you
purchased in the last 3 months online via their website ?
(Tick all that apply).
10.00%
8.00%
6.00%
There is large potential in selling
home appliances and whiteware
online and nearly all stores are
making efforts of being
representative. This market
offers large potential but is also
highly competitive.
4.00%
2.00%
0.00%
Copyright © FIRST., part of the BeyondD Pty Ltd Group. http://www.firstdigital.co.nz
This representative survey was carried out by 3Di Research on
the Great Sites platform Feb 2014 (n=2,470).
14

15. Home Appliances and Whiteware
Summary &
Observations
• The home appliances and whiteware market is highly competitive,
urging players to optimise their RBR to get ahead of their
competition.
• Noelleeming.co.nz has set a clear course to follow, but also
fisherpaykel.com/nz (who is a manufacturer), briscoes.co.nz, and
harveynorman.co.nz are currently the most visible sites in the digital
home appliances and whiteware landscape, achieving a dominant
share of voice thanks to strong positions in organic results.
• More than half of all home appliances and whiteware websites have a
very low organic RBR score, under 1% (!). This represents a big
opportunity for natural search optimisation.
• A considered search strategy that integrates both organic and paid
search should be a key customer acquisition channel for stores
offering home appliances and whiteware, driving revenue and
growing the stores share of digital spend.
Copyright © FIRST., part of the BeyondD Pty Ltd Group. http://www.firstdigital.co.nz

16. About FIRST.
Respected digital veterans are the foundation our agency is built upon: each team holds
a core capability that feeds into a business’ digital requirements. Our expertise in digital
has been built on over 14 years’ experience in digital strategy, web design and build,
search marketing and digital campaigns.
FIRST, our award-winning team of Internet marketers, has helped over 300 companies
across 100 industries achieve digital success. We provide companies with a digital
roadmap to success centred around a “digitally led” sales and marketing strategy.
Our services span search (SEO and SEM), email, performance media, conversion
optimisation and advanced analytics. We produce leading creative across all digital
areas. And we build eCommerce sites, CMS-driven sites, mobile apps, social media
initiatives and microsites. Most importantly, our work is underpinned by a focus on
delivering the return on investment our clients expect.
Copyright © FIRST., part of the BeyondD Pty Ltd Group. http://www.firstdigital.co.nz
16

17. Contact us
Contact FIRST to find out more.
Phone
Email
Web
+64 (9) 920 1740
info@firstdigital.co.nz
http://www.firstdigital.co.nz
http://www.linkedin.com/company/first-digital
http://www.firstdigital.co.nz/blog
Our Vision
To be highly sought after for
making a measurable
difference
Our Mission
We’re a team focused on
transforming businesses and
creating market leaders
through digital marketing.
We innovate, test and
optimise to create a
competitive advantage to
dominate the digital channel.
Our data-driven approach
will keep things simple and
make a measurable
difference.
Our Focus
As a Google Certified
Analytics Partner (GACP),
we focus on smart customer
acquisition using search and
performance media,
maximising conversion
using best practice CRO and
helping NZ businesses
making the best possible
decisions based on
accurate, actionable web
analytics.
Copyright © FIRST., part of the BeyondD Pty Ltd Group. http://www.firstdigital.co.nz
17