Background to the Survey
Refrigerators are considered large white goods that are challenging to purchase solely based on price comparisons online. Factors such as delivery routes, installation space, door opening direction, heat dissipation space, recycling of old refrigerators, long-term warranties, and ease of in-store consultation significantly influence purchasing satisfaction. As consumers increasingly turn to generative AI for advice on “where to buy,” the AI’s recommendations and emphasis on specific checking points could alter how consumers evaluate home appliance retailers. Stellagent aimed to observe the recommended destinations, their rankings, and the mention of refrigerator-specific checking items by inputting identical prompts into the web UIs of major generative AIs.
Survey Overview
The survey, conducted by Stellagent Inc. on July 17, 2026, involved inputting six scenarios related to refrigerator purchase destination selection five times each into ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot, totaling 150 responses and 735 recommendation lines. No responses failed to extract a purchase destination name or category.
| Item | Content |
|---|---|
| Survey Name | Which Home Appliance Retailer is Most Recommended in AI Refrigerator Purchase Consultations? |
| Survey Target | Refrigerator purchase destination recommendations by major generative AIs |
| Target AIs | ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot |
| Survey Date | July 17, 2026 |
| Survey Method | Inputting 6 scenarios related to refrigerator purchase destination selection 5 times each to each AI (6 scenarios × 5 AIs × 5 times each = 150 responses) |
| Number of Responses/Recommendation Lines | 150 responses, 735 recommendation lines (75 responses, 366 recommendation lines for home appliance store comparisons in S4R~S6R) |
| Ranking Points | Points added based on recommendation order in each response: 1st place 5 points, 2nd place 4 points, 3rd place 3 points, 4th place 2 points, 5th place 1 point |
| Survey Body | Stellagent Inc. |
Survey Results
Yamada Denki and K’s Denki Lead in Home Appliance Retailer Comparisons by Different Metrics
In 75 responses (S4R-S6R) where the condition was fixed to name home appliance retailers, Yamada Denki led in ranking points with 235 points, followed closely by K’s Denki with 234 points, and Bic Camera with 222 points. However, K’s Denki received the most first-place recommendations with 32 mentions. This indicates that stores consistently ranking high across various positions performed better in ranking points, while first-place recommendations showed a tendency to concentrate on specific stores, leading to different leaders depending on the metric.
Bias in First-Place Recommendations Across AI Services
An analysis of the 75 home appliance retailer comparison responses by AI service revealed varying tendencies in first-place recommendations. ChatGPT and Gemini recommended K’s Denki in 15 out of 15 instances. Claude recommended Yamada Denki in 11 out of 15 instances, while Copilot and Perplexity recommended Yodobashi Camera 12 and 9 times, respectively. This shows that even with identical prompts, the top recommended retailers differed significantly across AI services.
Delivery/Installation and In-Store Consultation Mentioned in All Responses; Energy Saving and Capacity Less Frequent
When aggregating mentions of refrigerator purchase checking items within the 75 home appliance retailer comparison responses, delivery/installation and in-store consultation were mentioned in all 75 responses. In contrast, capacity/family size was mentioned in only 28 responses, and energy saving in just 3 responses. This highlights a bias in AI responses towards practical, feasibility-related checking items.
Furthermore, in 75 responses (S1-S3) where no purchase destination category was specified, the home appliance store category received the most recommendations (206 lines). However, in price-focused consultations that also compared online purchases (S3), price comparison sites became the top category in 23 out of 25 responses.
For a detailed report, please visit: https://stellagent.ai/ja/research/refrigerator-retailer-ai-recommendation-survey-202607
Implications and Future Outlook
Home appliance retailers need to structure their refrigerator product pages, FAQs, and in-store consultation guides to ensure that AIs can easily understand not only the main product price but also information regarding delivery, installation, recycling, and warranties. The survey results indicate that AI responses strongly react to delivery/installation and in-store consultation, suggesting these factors are likely to be key reasons for recommendations as they provide assurance for refrigerator purchases.
For price-focused inquiries, there was a clear tendency for price comparison sites to be ranked first. Regarding refrigerator-specific checking items, mentions of door opening direction, heat dissipation space, capacity/family size, and energy saving were relatively low. Given the divergence in first-place recommendations across different AI services, businesses should continuously monitor how they are recommended, and for what reasons, by multiple AIs, rather than relying on results from a single AI.
It is important to note that this survey is an exploratory study involving 5 AIs × 6 scenarios × 5 repetitions and is not intended for statistical generalization. It does not evaluate the superiority or inferiority of service quality, prices, delivery support, or warranty content of each home appliance retailer. AI responses may vary depending on the model, search settings, UI, conversational context, and account status at the time of the survey. Furthermore, this survey did not standardize the models or contract plans for each AI, so differences in first-place recommendations observed across AI services include not only differences in the services themselves but also differences due to the combination of models, plans, and web search settings used. This study does not evaluate the superiority or inferiority of specific AIs.
About Stellagent Inc.
Stellagent Inc. is developing an agentic commerce platform that supports purchasing and booking experiences in the AI agent era.
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Company Name: Stellagent Inc.
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Representative: Akihiro Suzuki (Representative Director)
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Location: WeWork, Ocean Gate Minatomirai 8F, 3-7-1 Minatomirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa
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Establishment Date: February 22, 2022
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Website: https://stellagent.ai/ja
Inquiries Regarding This Matter
Stellagent offers consultations for home appliance retailers, manufacturers, and other retailers on visualizing AI recommendation status and implementing AI countermeasures. The company also supports the design and implementation of AI recommendation surveys by industry and product category.
Consultations on AI recommendation status, AI countermeasures, and category-specific AI recommendation surveys can be made here: https://stellagent.ai/ja/contact
*Product and service names mentioned in this news release are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
