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Aussies have spotted the new Kmart store in Box Hill. \u00b7 Source: LinkedIn\/Troy Verhagen <\/p>\n Aussies have spotted the new Kmart store in Box Hill. \u00b7 Source: LinkedIn\/Troy Verhagen <\/p>\n
Kmart<\/a> is opening a new type of standalone homewares store as it delves deeper into the furniture and homewares space.<\/p>\n The discount retailer<\/a> has become a key player in the $19 billion sector, with the new style of store set to further solidify its place among rivals like IKEA and Freedom.<\/p>\n The new concept store, called \u2018K Home\u2019, is slated to open in Box Hill in Melbourne in the coming weeks. The new-look store has noticeably dropped Kmart\u2019s<\/a> familiar red and blue branding, and instead sports an orange colour scheme and is a fraction of the size of a full-size Kmart.<\/p>\n QUT professor of consumer behaviour and retail marketing, Gary Mortimer, told Yahoo Finance it was a \u201creally smart move\u201d from the Wesfarmers-owned retailer.<\/p>\n RELATED<\/p>\n \u201cThey’ve obviously looked at one of their categories, homewares and furnishing, that is one of their successes here in Australia, and are extending it into a standalone store,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s good news for consumers because if you love the Kmart home brands products, now you don’t need to go to a full Kmart store.\u201d<\/p>\n Kmart creates its own \u2018mini-IKEA\u2019 <\/p>\n Mortimer said Kmart was creating its own version of a \u201cmini-IKEA\u201d with the new style of store, which is set to include furniture and storage pieces previously only available online.<\/p>\n Do you have a story to share? Contact tamika.seeto@yahooinc.com<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIKEA is very well known for being on-trend, fashionable and generally low prices, where you’re going to get that, but at a smaller level with Kmart, as I would hope to see them roll these K Home stores out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Kmart has already \u201cstamped their credentials\u201d on the furniture and homeware space with its own brand Anko<\/a>, with items frequently trending on social media.<\/p>\n Anko<\/a> accounts for more than 85 per cent of Kmart\u2019s sales, with more than one billion items sold across Australia each year.<\/p>\n Homewares a \u2018major growth category\u2019 in Australia <\/p>\n The Australian furniture and homewares market is currently worth about $19 billion.<\/p>\n Harvey Norman currently leads the market with a 10.8 per cent market share, followed by IKEA with 5.8 per cent, and Amart and Freedom at 4.8 per cent.<\/p>\n That\u2019s according to a pitch deck<\/a> for Home Furniture Group Holdings, the group behind Amart and Freedom, which is preparing for an initial public offering and records nearly $1 billion in sales.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that home furnishings here in Australia is one of the major growth categories that we’re seeing, that even despite this cost-of-living crisis, people still want their homes to look nice, and if I can do that on a budget, that’s a win-win,\u201d Mortimer said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou’d have a Freedom shopper that’s now going to look at the Kmart home offer or K Home offer and go, gee, the products are very similar, potentially actually coming out of the same factories, but I can actually make my living room amazing for a fraction of the cost.\u201d<\/p>\n Profits at IKEA\u2019s Australian stores nearly doubled in the past year, posting a net profit of $91.35 million for the year to August, up from $51.3 million.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also been an uplift in profits at Harvey Norman, with net profit up 15.2 per cent to $321.9 million in the first half. Nick Scali\u2019s first-half net profit was up 36 per cent to $41 million.<\/p>\n ASX-listed Temple and Webster<\/a>, meanwhile, revealed a 36 per cent fall in net profit to $5.76 million for the half-year to December.<\/p>\n Kmart able to scale new concept stores quickly <\/p>\n Kmart has said it plans to learn through the new Box Hill store and find out more about how customers want to shop home items under the one roof.<\/p>\n Mortimer said the benefit of having a smaller store footprint is that Kmart will be able to scale the idea quickly, with the Box Hill store located in a former Decathlon store.<\/p>\n \u201cThere’d be available space in shopping centres around Australia, and I imagine there’d be available space in standalone stores as well, like the one at Box Hill,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s certainly easier to open a K Home store than it is to open a full-line Kmart. So, you’re going to need a lot more space for a full line Kmart, but just do the category of home store, and I think you’ll scale pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n It comes after Kmart introduced its new AI shopping assistant<\/a>, Joy, for online customers last week.<\/p>\n Using Google Cloud technology<\/a>, customers are able to virtually try on outfits and visualise home products in their own space with \u201csee it in my space\u201d functionality.<\/p>\n Mortimer said this would complement the in-store experience where people can touch and feel furniture and homewares, while also visualising what it would actually look like in their loungerooms.<\/p>\n Hardware giant Bunnings<\/a>, also owned by Wesfarmers, rolled out its own AI shopping assistant last month and has already reported an uptick in conversions and basket sizes.<\/p>\n Get the latest Yahoo Finance news – follow us on Facebook<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n The new store has ditched the normal red and blue branding and instead has gone for an all orange colour scheme. \u00b7 Source: LinkedIn\/Troy Verhagen <\/p>\n
The new store is set to open in the coming weeks. \u00b7 Source: Facebook\/Box Hill and Burwood Community, Melbourne <\/p>\n