Inside Kmart's new store layout designed to get Gen Z to spend more
Kmart has begun trialling a new layout that brings clothing and beauty to the front of the store, in an effort to maximise sales and lure Gen Z and Gen Alpha shoppers into becoming lifelong customers.
The popular retailer's new managing director, Aleks Spaseska, outlined a vision to further develop its women's, men's and youth apparel ranges and beauty products, ramp up electronics, toys and collectables for 'kidults', and deepen social media engagement, as part of a broader goal to double the business in under 10 years.
'The biggest difference you'll notice is in the apparel and beauty offer in the store,' Spaseska said.
'If you go into women's apparel today, you'll see we mostly sell all the tops together, the bottoms together, the dresses together. If you think about the way our merchants put the ranges together, it's a brand-new outfit,' she said.
'When you walk the store in the new format, there's much more co-ordination through women's apparel, which allows customers to be much more inspired and helps with outfit building … We've also brought beauty to the front of the store as well.'
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Brisbane's Mount Gravatt store was refurbished last year to be the first to try out this format, which is already yielding results as customers put more items in their baskets. Four more stores are in the pipeline for next month, and if successful, all Kmart stores will eventually be refurbished.
'Those results have been stronger sales, particularly in apparel, and really pleasingly, we're seeing customers because of changes to the flow of the store, shop much more,' Spaseska said.
To make more room for clothing, some bigger, bulkier items like car seats and bikes will be removed from the shop floor to the back of the store, where customers can request and buy an item through a digital 'select and collect' screen.
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