Online entrepreneur Ruslan Kogan will expand his Kogan Tech business into the US, due to the size of the potential market.
The ambitious endeavour comes after Kogan announced plans earlier this year to release Australia’s first phone running on Google’s Android operating system, but then scrapped the venture citing “operations issues”.
“It’s been on the agenda for a while and we’ve been talking about it. The last quarter of last year and this year have been about expanding our product range and expanding into the US,” Kogan says.
“I’m just here [in the US] now to finalise which warehouse facility we’re going to use, third party logistics and that sort of thing. We’re ready to go straight after that.”
Kogan says the size of the US market will give the company enough to work on for the foreseeable future, and that the US was a natural expansion for the company.
“It’s a market that’s more than 20 times bigger than ours and very similar in terms of culture, marketing and how to communicate with them. There won’t be much of a change, and they are the pioneers of online shopping. They’re not scared to shop online, they’re looking for a bargain.”
He isn’t discouraged by the country’s recession, saying his online-based store will be a haven for consumers looking for a bargain.
“If anything, the fact it’s a recession will help us. People will research more and look at what product to buy, and the perfect testament is Vizio. They are a budget brand and yet have a huge market share. They are players over here, and there are people understanding online and comparing sites.”
“The challengers in this market would be probably similar to what we’ve had in Australia in terms of the brand. We’ve been working hard in Australia for three years, and now we’re entering the US market with that challenge. I think we’ll tackle the challenge the same way we have in Australia, but of course it’s a bigger market. We’re confident.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
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