If you’ve wandered into Kmart lately and thought something felt different, you weren’t imagining it. The retailer is quietly rolling out a brand-new Kmart store layout across around 40 Australian stores, with bigger home departments, easier navigation and a shopping experience designed to help customers discover products rather than simply tick items off a list. Kmart expects to complete the nationwide rollout by mid-2027.
While fashion and beauty are getting plenty of attention, it’s the expanded homewares department that has us most excited.
Home is becoming one of Kmart’s biggest priorities
For years, Kmart has been the destination for affordable styling pieces, from viral rechargeable lamps and boucle cushions to stone-look servingware and designer-inspired furniture. Now the retailer is literally making more room for home.
The new Kmart store layout gives homewares a larger footprint, grouping products in a way that feels more inspiring and easier to browse instead of squeezing them into busy aisles.
For shoppers, that means less hunting for matching pieces and more opportunities to see entire collections styled together.
It’s a subtle change, but one that reflects how Australians increasingly shop for their homes—not just buying one item, but building a whole look.
No more walking to the middle of the store to pay
Perhaps the biggest surprise? The iconic central checkout is disappearing.
Instead, the new Kmart store layout moves customers toward a more streamlined front-of-store exit, complete with expanded self-service checkouts and improved Select & Collect facilities.
The new layout makes popping in for “just one cushion” (which inevitably becomes a trolley full of storage baskets and candles) a much smoother experience.
Shopping is becoming more about inspiration
Retail experts have long recognised that customers spend longer—and discover more products—when stores feel intuitive rather than cluttered.
Rather than separating products into rigid categories, the refreshed Kmart store layout encourages customers to browse complete collections and styled displays, making it easier to imagine how pieces could work together at home.
More home retailers now embrace this philosophy, treating decorating inspiration as just as important as the products themselves.
Which stores are changing?
The first wave includes around 40 stores across Australia, including locations in Penrith, Campbelltown, Marrickville, Ashfield, Blacktown, Waratah, Charlestown and Sylvania in NSW, with more expected to follow as the rollout continues through 2027.
What it says about Australian homes
This redesign isn’t simply about moving shelves around. It reflects something bigger: Australians are investing more thought into creating homes that feel beautiful without blowing the budget.
As affordable decorating continues to dominate social media, retailers like Kmart are responding by making home styling easier, more inspiring and more accessible than ever.
And if the retailer’s track record of selling out its latest home collections is anything to go by, we have a feeling those bigger home departments are going to fill up very quickly.
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