For energy retail pricing to be competitive, consumers need to walk away from expensive plans. In reality, searching for a new plan costs time and effort. Frictions amplified by brand loyalty, choice overload, retailer bundling tactics and plan complexity mean consumers often stick to the status quo.
In March 2022, the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) introduced the Better Bills Guideline (‘the Guideline’) which sets out how energy retailers must design their bill for consumers and what content they must include. The Guideline sets out design principles to ensure bills use simple language and present content logically to prioritise the most important information. The new Guideline is now mandatory across New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory.
BETA’s research informed the Guideline: Electricity information to fit the bill, 2018 and Improving energy bills, 2021.
We partnered with the AER on two new projects:
- Better Bills impact report, 2025 - evaluates the impact of the Better Bills Guideline
- Empowered to switch, 2025 - designs and evaluates changes to the Energy Made Easy (EME) comparison website.
A bill that saves you money
We found that the Guideline made new bills notably easier to navigate for consumers. The new bills distilled complex information with improved visual design and simpler language, and consumers found it easier to find critical information and see how much, when and how to pay their bill.
We were particularly interested in the impact of the ‘Better Offer’ message. This message lets consumers know if their retailer has a cheaper plan available and, if not, encourages them to check plans from other retailers on the Energy Made Easy comparison website. Under the Guideline, all energy bills must also include a link to Energy Made Easy on the front page.
All retailers implemented the Guideline by or before 30 September 2023. The percentage of Energy Made Easy visitors who arrived at the website because of a prompt on their energy bills jumped from 7% in August to 23% by November. 1 in 5 visitors to EME were prompted by their bills, adding up to large savings with more than a million Australians visiting Energy Made Easy each year to compare energy plans (AER 2023).
Comparing energy deals is now even easier
As the new energy bills drove consumers to the Energy Made Easy website (EME), BETA and the AER worked together to make it easier to navigate. We wanted to make it easier to find and compare the energy plans available, so consumers could find the right plan for them.
BETA tested a different search flow and streamlined language to better describe the search options. When the AER made these behaviourally informed changes to the search funnel, website users were also more likely to share their meter data, the quickest way to get to a results page with the most accurate results (from 39% to 70%) and were more likely to respond to all questions and reach the results page (increase from 70% to 84%). EME users were ultimately much more likely to look at one or more individual plans – typically the last step before making a switch. This increased from 9% to 28%, meaning more consumers were findings better energy plans for them.
