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· Posted on
February 21, 2024

Kmart is swimming against the retailer-tide to become the king of Australian retail

Kmart is a cult favourite in Australia so it's no surprise that Kmart Group generated huge revenue over the past 6 months.

What's the key learning?

  • Kmart Group, which includes Kmart and Target, generated $5.7 billion in revenue for the past 6 months - but it hasn't always been that way.
  • In 2010, Kmart Group had earnings of just under $200 million which shows the pretty significant change in fortune for Kmart.
  • With a new leadership team, new brand, and new marketing, Kmart managed to shrug the 'cheap and nasty' stigma and shimmied its way into being a leading, budget friendly department store.

👉 Background: Kmart opened its first store in Victoria. Since then, it has grown to have over 38,000 team members and over 300 stores.

👉 What happened: We know that Kmart is a cult favourite in Australia so it’s no surprise that Kmart Group, which also includes Target, generated $5.7 billion in revenue for the past 6 months.

👉 What else: But it hasn’t always been that way. Back in 2010, it had earnings of just under $200 million. This highlights the pretty significant change in fortune for Kmart which only 10 years ago was down in the dump.

What's the key learning?

💡 The revolution of Kmart is a case study of how to re-shape a brand and a whole business. In 2010, Kmart was struggling with low levels of relevancy - it had no way of differentiating itself from other low-end department stores.

💡In comes a new leadership team, new brand and new marketing.

  • It shifted from splashy catalogues with weekly specials to every day low prices
  • It shifted from images of individual products to images of products in chic home settings
  • It shifted from old school billboards to social media and edgy TV advertising

💡Slowly but surely, Kmart managed to shrug the ‘cheap and nasty’ stigma, and shimmied its way into being a leading, budget friendly department store.

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