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Myer, Harvey won't do China sites: Kogan

CEO and founder of Kogan Technologies, Ruslan Kogan has called out Myer CEO Bernie Brookes and Harvey Norman executive director Gerry Harvey, saying the two would never open an online store in China.
Written by Luke Hopewell, Contributor

CEO and founder of Kogan Technologies, Ruslan Kogan has called out Myer CEO Bernie Brookes and Harvey Norman executive director Gerry Harvey, saying the two would never open an online store in China.

Ruslan Kogan

Ruslan Kogan(Ruslan Kogan image by KoganTech, CC 2.0)

Brookes came out last week and said that the retailer had been working on an online store based out of southern China in order to circumvent the government's goods and services tax (GST) on products below $1000.

Gerry Harvey, staunch opponent to the high rate of GST charged to brick-and-mortar retailers, soon followed suit, telling ChannelNews that it may have its site finished before Myer.

Kogan has today hit back at those claims, saying that Myer and Harvey Norman were as likely to open China-based stores as Australia was to win The Ashes.

The outspoken Kogan labelled the move as a stunt to force the government's hand on the GST, and even issued the two company heads with a challenge.

"In the highly unlikely event that they do open their stores and keep them open for three months, I will place prominent links on kogan.com.au directly to Harvey Norman's and Myer's China-based online stores," he said.

Kogan also pointed out a flaw in the retailers' plan, saying that the freight cost from China would cancel out any saving that the company may have achieved as a result.

Harvey told ChannelNews today that the company may not make a huge amount of money from the plan, but it was better than making none at all.

The Federal Government has rejected calls for GST to be added to imported goods under $1000.

Kogan recently announced a new way of financing products in development and rewarding early adopters by getting them to buy products before they were built. Called "LivePrice", it was described by Kogan as a "revolution in online shopping".

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