Kogan Gets Caught Comparing Itself to Itself

<p>Mal and Alex are back this week still hoarse from two big days on the podcast stage at Online Retailer and the ORIAS — congrats to The Iconic on a first-time Online Retailer of the Year win, and to Ben Hare for taking out industry recognition. From there it&#39;s a genuinely wide-ranging one: a AI-authenticity reckoning hitting everything from guitar strings to chart-topping AI covers, a Shopify platform shift that&#39;s quietly displacing freelance dev work, and a healthy dose of FY27 dread.</p><p>The story with the most teeth this week is Kogan, who an ABC News investigation found has been running a second site, Exclusive Brands, selling identical products at a median $100 more than Kogan.com — inflating the &quot;was&quot; price it then discounts against. Kogan denies wrongdoing, but with the ACCC increasingly active on misleading price comparisons, Mal and Alex dig into where legitimate multi-brand pricing ends and where this starts.</p><ul><li>BCF&#39;s giveaway-only Fisho&#39;s Onesie has entries closing this Friday, and it&#39;s a masterclass in high-shareability, low-budget campaign design.</li><li>Shopify&#39;s Horizon theme rebuild is being optimised for its Sidekick AI assistant first and humans second — 20% of merchants are already using it, racking up 25 million edits.</li><li>D&#39;Addario is fending off accusations its new string-demo video used AI-generated music, part of a bigger reckoning playing out across Spotify&#39;s AI-track purge and Australia&#39;s AI-covered #1 single.</li><li>Kogan&#39;s alleged self-comparison pricing model is under scrutiny, with former ACCC chair Rod Sims flagging it as a case worth investigating.</li><li>Mal shares how his own clients are handling price rises with upfront comms and subscriber grandfathering — the opposite play to Kogan&#39;s.</li><li>Myer&#39;s full-year update shows underlying growth barely moved once the Apparel Brands acquisition is stripped out, against a backdrop of consumer confidence down roughly 20 points.</li><li>Bricks-and-mortar preference has swung hard, from 41% to 68% of shoppers, as buyers chase the trust and tactility online can&#39;t offer.</li><li>Virtual try-on tech is fast becoming table stakes for online eyewear, and Alex is on the hunt for an Australian Warby Parker equivalent.</li><li>FY27 is shaping up heavier — CGT changes, tax hikes and a US tariff rise from 10% to 12.5% are all on operators&#39; radars.</li><li>A respectful shout-out to Jackie and the Black Milk team, who&#39;ve had to move onshore manufacturing to China, affecting 15 local jobs.</li><li>Mal&#39;s heading to eTail next, Alex is off to Auckland for the Unified Commerce Assembly in a month.</li></ul>