April Fools: Kogan hoaxes The Australian with store ruse

Online retail business Kogan.com has successfully managed to prank The Australian newspaper with its April Fools’ Day claim that it was opening a bricks-and-mortar store in Melbourne.

Kogan, whose founder Ruslan Kogan has a history of high-profile media stunts, often at the expense of traditional retailers, sent out a press release on April 1 on the business’ supposed launch at the Chadstone Shopping Centre.

Despite the date and Kogan’s regular spruiking of the benefits of shopping online as opposed to in-store – even within the press release announcing the move – The Australian ran the story in its entirety.

Realising its error, the ostensibly quality broadsheet yanked down its article, but not before a screen grab was taken to highlight the error.

The clues should’ve been there for Oz journalist Chris Griffith, with the press release including clearly sarcastic Kogan gems such as: “Our Chadstone flagship store will be massive! While you won’t be able to read reviews and what thousands of customers thought about our products, you will be able to hear what our incentivised sales staff have to say about them.”

“At Kogan.com we’ve grown so much that shoppers can browse hundreds of products in seconds, and now they can spend hours inspecting them in our flagship store too.”

“For those who see this as a move in the opposite direction for our brand, customers will still have the option to purchase online through Kogan.com if they wish to score items at the best possible price, have them delivered right to their door, and not have to battle the crowds.”