Online retailer Kogan has launched its official New Zealand store, selling both its own badged Agora products and grey imports of phones, cameras and other consumer electronics. But there’s one interesting omission on its Kiwi site: televisions.
That’s an odd exclusion, given that the very first product Ruslan Kogan sold in Australia eight years ago (back when Kogan was an eBay store) was TV sets from China. A spokesperson told us that the different TV tuning system in New Zealand is the reason for the gap, and that the site will offer televisions “soon”. The range on the site will expand throughout 2014.
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10 responses to “Why Kogan Isn’t Selling Televisions In New Zealand Yet”
What’re you aussie’s opinions on Kogan? Is it a good thing, or would I just be wasting my time?
All kogan branded stuff is just cheap junk from china, I wouldn’t trust it for a second. Its just the same as buying a cheap Kmart branded electronic item. The only difference is there’s no physical store to return it to when it breaks, which can make things harder.
Eww, yeah I think I’ll pass on this. I doubt it’ll pick up much traction here anyway
Depends on the product, I know people who were quite happy with what they bought from Kogan. Obviously if you want the best performance and price is not an issue you will just buy what you want. I don’t know why you would doubt it will gain traction in NZ, lower incomes over there, so might actually be more successful, plus Kiwis and Aussies are actually more alike than they care to admit; I am an Aussie and I have plenty of Kiwi friends.
IDK, most people I know would be willing to put in that little bit of extra cash if it meant a bit of self security. One thing about NZ being so tightly knit is that word of mouth is our strongest form of advertising, and once word gets around about an Aussie company with shite customer service and hellish return processes, people will start avoiding it like the plague, especially since many kiwi companies pride themselves on excellent customer service we get kind of used to it :\
(TLDR Foreign chains tend to lose out to local businesses. Most kiwis would rather spend a little bit more to shop with a kiwi company than a foreign/aussie one if they can)
Also that thing about lower incomes, that may be true, but the cost of living isn’t as high either, so you still end up with the same amount of spending money at the end of the day :p
Economic opportunities are one of the primary reasons Kiwis and Europeans move to Australia. So although goods are cheaper in NZ it is not enough to compensate the difference in income the majority of Kiwis that move to Australia are unskilled workers, that says to me there is financial pressure enough to encourage people to buy from low cost retailers over there. However I have noticed brand loyalty is strong among Kiwis. Australians have been getting ripped off for so long something just being Australian owned or made doesn’t do it for us anymore, fairness on price does. Kogan has both in this instance, It will be interesting to see how Kogan goes over there. I wasn’t having a dig at you or NZ, I just think that the market over there seems just as ideal as Australia but for different reasons.
I thought the reason they move out here is because they get tired of a place that’s depressingly grey 3/4 of the year lol
To me the reason a lot of kiwis go over there is because there aren’t many job opportunities in certain industries (which may be a result of all of them leaving in the first place :\)
Yeah brand loyalty is strong, often to the point where we might not even look at other stores for different prices 😐 but the Aussie chains are way overpriced, dick smith can just go jump in a hole and die lol
Just remember that NZ is quite small compared to aus, I’d be willing to bet that everything would still be stored in the Aus warehouses and would take a few days longer to ship (we’re used to next day delivery here lol)
You may be surprised. Kogan seems to be pretty good at undercutting the competition, and the company is big enough to get some good economies of scale. If they sell TVs and phones for hundreds less than the competition (They even undercut other grey-market importers), you can be sure somebody will be buying them.
What I’ve heard: The products are pretty good value for money, but the customer service is awful. If you have to send something back because it’s faulty, you will not enjoy the experience.
I don’t know about undercutting other grey importers. I was looking for a pair of Sennheiser HD650’s earlier this year and I ended up going for another grey importer because even during a sale Kogan’s prices never came close to the others.
Same for when I bought my 5DmkIII, Galaxy S4 (although I ended up going for OW price match for the s4, after GST rebate it was cheaper locally).
For select items during some of Kogan’s better sales prices approach grey importers and beat by 1-2%, but rarely are Kogan undercutting grey importers by a significant margin.
Also Kogan is registered in Hong Kong (well their shipping shell company is at least) so Kogan is a grey importer, not a local company under cutting the grey importers.
Bought a Galaxy Note 2 from them a few months ago. they were competitively priced and i’ve got no problems with service / quality. You just have to be sensible about what you buy. If you know the product and brand, and the price is good – then no problems. They have to abide by usual consumer laws so you can return the product if faulty etc.
I am in Australia and have purchased from Kogan, 2 televisions, pvr, and have found them excellent and customer service was amazing.
I am moving back to NZ shortly and will be purchasing from them if the need arises.
I can say nothing bad about them