There's not a Swedish meatball in sight, but from Thursday, Australian budget retail giant Kmart will launch its assault on big box homewares shopping.

Kmart, owned by the $96 billion industrial conglomerate Wesfarmers, is taking on Ikea head-on with a new 3000-plus square metre store in Box Hill South in Melbourne's east. If the trial works, the retailer will roll out the format across Australia.

The new store is called K Home, and it's basically a giant showroom for Kmart's own brand Anko. General manager of store experience Courtny Keeble said it would "bring Kmart's online homewares offering to life" — letting customers touch, feel and experience products that were previously too big to stock in regular stores.

Unlike a normal Kmart, K Home will only sell homewares. No clothes, no shoes, no toys. The only other brands you'll find are a handful near the checkout. Everything else is Anko, all the way.

But don't expect new products you've never seen before. The point of difference is how things are styled and displayed. Kmart hopes that by showing you a fully decorated room, you'll be inspired to buy the whole lot.

Wesfarmers is one of Australia's top 10 companies, pulling in nearly $46 billion in total sales each year. Its other retail arms include Bunnings Warehouse, Target, Officeworks and Priceline Pharmacy.

Kmart alone generated $11.4 billion in revenue last financial year. Wesfarmers estimates that Kmart sales account for about 10 per cent of Australia's $34 billion home and living market.

Keeble wouldn't give specific sales targets for K Home, but said management would measure success by foot traffic, sales, and broader customer response. The store is on a multi-year lease, so they're in it for the long haul.

Social media hype has been building ahead of Thursday's opening, but not everyone is cheering. Lisa Asher, a retail expert from the University of Sydney Business School, raised concerns about Wesfarmers' growing power in Australian retail.

"I don't agree with how they remove competition from markets, then only see their obligations to shareholders," Asher said.

She also criticised the company's sourcing practices, saying outsourcing manufacturing to developing nations with low labour laws and environmental protections means "we're polluting and exploiting those nations and people by purchasing these products."

Asher called for greater transparency under consumer law, arguing it would "fundamentally shift the low quality disposable products we pay only a few dollars for from Wesfarmers."

For now, Kmart is betting that Aussies want a one-stop shop for home styling without the maze-like layout of Ikea. Whether that bet pays off depends on how many shoppers make the trip to Box Hill South.