What would happen if a successful online retailer took all of its lessons and applied it to face-to-face retail? Kogan made a little video exploring how that might go — with the punchline being it actually is opening up a brick and mortar store, in the company’s home town of Melbourne.
The video is actually a cheeky way to celebrate the opening of a pop-up store on Chapel St in Prahran, Victoria. And also kind of a way to have fun with the fact that Ruslan Kogan once said he’d never open up a physical store, with all the stock overheads and staffing and other costs associated with that.
A Kogan spokesperson told Gizmodo: “It is real, I promise.” It certainly looks real. There’s even a long and surprisingly honest blog post called Eating Humble Pie.
Ruslan Kogan had this to say about the new venture: “While I’ve often spoken about how the physical retail business model has some advantages and is a sustainable business model if done correctly, I’ve also said that Kogan.com will always remain online only. I should not have used a blanket statement.
“Lesson learned: Never say never.”
There’s no word as to how long the pop-up store will stay around, but the range of products is surprisingly broad — if still a small portion of the overall number available online. Kogan’s spokesperson told Gizmodo: “While the Kogan.com site has over 30,000 products, the pop up store has a limited selection of about 150 products based on what people in that location are most likely to want.”
If you feel like buying some affordably priced gadgets in real life rather than online, here’s the store’s location in Prahran: