d services, but the underlying thesis hasn’t changed: Strip out waste, pass every productivity gain back to customers, and Aussies will rapidly change how they shop. In this interview, Inside Retail sits down with founder and CEO Ruslan Kogan to unpack the garage‑to‑giant journey, and what “only just getting started” really looks like in Kogan.com’s third decade. Inside Retail: Take us back to 2006 in your parents’ garage. What did you see in the market that the rest of the industry either couldn’t see or refused to believe about Australians buying big-ticket items online?   Ruslan Kogan: In 2006, online retail in Australia barely existed. When we launched Kogan.com, many people said nobody would ever buy a TV online without touching it first. We believed otherwise.   The philosophy that drove us to sell TVs online when the internet was still running on dial-up still drives us today: every productivity gain we unlock, and [the benefit from] every inefficiency we remove goes straight back to the people who matter most, our customers.   IR: In those early days, selling TVs online was considered impossible. What was the single biggest moment when you realised the sceptics were wrong and that Kogan.com could genuinely reshape how Australians shop?   RK: I knew Aussies loved a bargain. I grew up in a frugal household, so I knew what it meant to shop around and compare products. When I listed the first Kogan TVs online and they instantly started selling, I knew I was onto something. Aussies could see that a small online retailer could operate with greater efficiency than some of the incumbent bricks-and-mortar retailers and deliver them deals that were far better than anything they’d seen before.   In the early days, the industry was focused on why it wouldn’t work. We were focused on the customer and how to make it work better for them. When Australians started buying large, considered purchases like TVs online, sight unseen, it told us something powerful: If you can deliver better value, remove unnecessary costs, and create a seamless experience, customers will change their behaviour quickly.   One of the earliest tipping points was when demand started to outpace our expectations, not because we were spending heavily on marketing, but because customers were telling other customers. That kind of organic growth is hard to manufacture; it happens only when you’re genuinely delivering something better.   That’s when it became clear the sceptics weren’t just wrong about TVs, they were underestimating how quickly technology can shift consumer habits when the value equation is compelling enough.   From there, it wasn’t about proving people wrong. It was about continuing to earn customer trust and using technology to make everyday essentials more affordable and accessible.    IR: You’ve said you could run a more efficient business than traditional retailers and pass the savings straight to customers. Over 20 years and $10 billion in sales later, what did it take, behind the scenes, to make that efficiency real, rather than just a slogan?   RK: Efficiency isn’t a slogan, it’s a system.   From day one, we stripped out costs that don’t add value: no unnecessary middlemen, no expensive retail footprint, no legacy systems. We built our own tech, worked directly with manufacturers, and used data to optimise everything from pricing to inventory.   Behind the scenes, it’s thousands of small, disciplined decisions that compound – staying lean, automating wherever possible, and constantly reinvesting in better systems.   There’s no finish line. Efficiency is something you keep earning as technology and customer expectations evolve.  Our internal philosophy is ‘there is always a better way’. We know the way we do things today is just the best we’ve come up with until now and there is a better way to do everything. It creates a culture of innovation; every team member knows that every process and method is up for questioning.    IR: You’ve said that part of Kogan.com’s role has been to keep the industry honest. Can you share a specific example where you’ve seen established retailers change their pricing, product strategy or customer offering in direct response to Kogan’s presence in the market?  RK: While we do about $1 billion in sales a year and have generated about $10 billion in sales over the lifetime of our business, the biggest impact we’ve had on retail in Australia is not the sales we’ve made but the response we’ve had from the larger incumbent players.   We’re always innovating and finding ways to drive down prices for our customers. And it’s forcing a lot of the larger retailers to try to do the same. They’re trying hard and we can see them react to our deals and prices in the market all the time. So it’s fair to say that our biggest impact on retail in Australia is not even our own sales but the behaviour we’ve caused in the market.   If Kogan.com didn’t exist, Aussies would be paying much, much more for everything.  IR: The timeline of Kogan.com shows a steady expansion from private-label electronics into a diversified platform and services like mobile, internet, money and insurance. Which of those strategic leaps felt most risky at the time, and why did you back yourself to do it anyway?   RK: The move into services, particularly mobile which was our first, was never risky, as we knew we had a great offer and an incredible partner.   We backed ourselves because the playbook didn’t change: Focus on value, stay lean, and build systems that scale. Once you get that right, the category matters less than people think.  IR: Looking back across the milestones of the past two decades, which one do you think most clearly signalled that Kogan was no longer just a disruptive upstart, but a structural part of Australia’s retail landscape?   RK: When COVID hit, we felt a responsibility to be there for our customers when they needed us most. Demand exploded and our business more than doubled in a short period of time as we delivered essential items to Australians in lockdown.    We were unable to service all the customer needs due to global stock shortages. So, we made the decision to invest heavily in inventory. At the time, the prevailing view was that lockdowns could last for five years.   There were times when government representatives would reach out to us to check on our inventory levels to ensure we could continue providing essential products to Aussies. I think this really painted the picture of how important what we were doing was for the nation – we had become critical infrastructure.  IR: You’ve said that by about 1am most days, you now exceed your entire first-year sales. How has that kind of scale changed what “customer obsession” needs to look like inside Kogan today versus in year one?   RK: In year one, ‘customer obsession’ was personal, I knew every order, every complaint, every piece of feedback. You could fix things yourself.   Today, the scale is completely different. Hitting that level of sales means you can’t rely on instinct alone, obsession has to be baked into every system, every process, every team. It’s about designing experiences that are seamless at tens of thousands of transactions per hour, using data to anticipate problems before they happen, and empowering teams to act fast when they do.   The principle is the same: making the customer’s life easier.  But the execution is a lot more structural and systemic. You obsess through technology, process and culture, not just by chasing every single ticket personally.   IR: AI and automation are now embedded across engineering, logistics, marketing and customer service at Kogan.com. How do you decide which parts of the customer journey to automate, and where it’s still critical to have a distinctly human touch?   RK: The rule is simple: Automate anything if it improves speed, accuracy, or consistency, and it should always improve the customer experience.   For example, logistics, inventory management, and order updates are perfect for AI. Customers get faster, error-free service, and we free up people to solve real problems. Marketing benefits from automation, too – personalised offers at scale.  The human touch stays where it matters most: complex customer issues, complaints or situations that require judgment and empathy. No AI can replace the reassurance a person provides when something goes wrong.   It’s not about replacing humans, it’s about letting technology handle the repetitive stuff, so humans can focus on the moments that matter to the customer.   IR: Many retailers talk about productivity gains and removing inefficiencies, but fewer genuinely pass those on. What mechanisms or guardrails have you put in place to ensure every productivity gain you unlock really does flow back to customers as value?   RK: At Kogan, efficiency is a tool for value, not just profit.  It comes down to one principle: Every efficiency we unlock has to benefit the customer first, not just the bottom line.   We track it rigorously. Pricing is constantly benchmarked, margins are reviewed with a view to passing on savings, and every operational improvement is measured against the value it creates for the customer.   Culturally, it’s embedded, too. Teams aren’t rewarded for cutting costs alone, they’re rewarded for cutting costs and improving the customer experience. That alignment ensures productivity gains never get trapped inside the business; they flow straight to better prices, faster delivery, or a smoother experience.   IR: Online retail is now crowded and highly sophisticated. When you look ahead to the next decade, where do you see the next major disruption coming from in e-commerce, and how are you positioning Kogan.com to stay in front of that curve?   RK: We’re positioning Kogan by investing in AI, automation, and data-driven insights across every part of the business, from logistics to customer service to product curation. The goal isn’t to chase trends, it’s to build a platform that can adapt faster than the market, so when disruption hits, we’re leading it, not reacting.  It’s the same playbook we’ve used for 20 years: Focus on real customer value, stay lean, and leverage technology to scale smarter.   IR: You often reference “not paying too much” as almost a national pastime. How has tapping into that very Australian mindset influenced your brand voice, your marketing bets and the way you frame value for customers?   RK: Not paying too much might be Australia’s favourite pastime. Don’t believe me? Just rewatch “The Castle”. ‘Jousting sticks? Tell ’em he’s dreaming.’   It shapes our voice: straightforward, no jargon, no fluff. It drives marketing decisions; campaigns focus on clear savings, comparisons, and transparency. And it influences how we frame value: it’s not just about being cheap, it’s about being smarter with money, giving customers more for less, and making them feel savvy for choosing Kogan.   In other words, we don’t just sell products, we sell the satisfaction of knowing you didn’t overpay, and Australians get that instinctively.   IR: As Kogan.com enters its third decade, what are the non-negotiable principles from the garage days that you’re determined to protect, and what are the internal ‘rules’ you’re prepared to challenge to make sure you’re only just getting started in disrupting retail?   RK: The non-negotiables are simple: Obsess over the customer, keep the business lean, provide customers remarkable value and challenge the status quo. Those are the principles that got us from a garage to $10 billion in sales, they’re the DNA we’ll never compromise.   The rules we’re willing to challenge are the ones that slow us down: traditional categories, legacy processes, and ‘that’s how it’s always been done’ thinking. To stay ahead, we need to rethink what retail can be, experiment boldly, and move faster than the market expects.   In short: The core values stay, but the playbook keeps evolving, because disruption never rests, and neither do we.