Archive for the ‘online shopping’ Category

Parcel volumes up as more Kiwis order online

Tuesday, February 18th, 2014
Photo credit; Lydia on Flickr

Photo credit; Lydia on Flickr

While overall mail volumes continue to decline, parcel volumes are on the rise, growing by 4% per year.

The rise in parcel shipments is due to the fact that more Kiwis are ordering items online, New Zealand Post chief operating officer Ashley Smout said.

But the rise in parcel volume cannot stop the fall of general mail volume, which is falling at a rate of about 8% per year. Smout said the decline was the biggest ever in 2013, compared with between 5% and 6% in the past.

He said the company is meeting this challenge with more advanced sorting procedures to reduce the amount of manual sorting and providing posties with different modes of transport.

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Online jewelry store requires lots of work but paying off for Kiwi woman

Thursday, January 16th, 2014
Photo credit; Beads for Beds on Flickr

Photo credit; Beads for Beds on Flickr

Although running her own fashion accessory business, Zabbana, requires long hours from owner Kelly Bozzone, it provides her with the flexibility she needs for her nomadic lifestyle.

Bozzone studied design, art history and learned how to hand-make jewellery prior to working for a year in the jewellery wholesale business in New Zealand. The experiences and knowledge she learned from these environments were invaluable for her when she launched Zabbana in January of 2008.

While she typically works 10 hour days during the week and does catch up work on the weekends, Bozzone says running her own online business suits her because of her husband having to split his time between New Zealand and the USA due to his job. Zabbana allows her to go with him rather than having to spend months apart from each other.

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Swap or Trade It swaps its way to success

Thursday, January 2nd, 2014

Photo credit; Kirby Kerr on Flickr

Photo credit; Kirby Kerr on Flickr

Swap or Trade It is a newly launched grass roots New Zealand company that has built a website that individuals, businesses and communities can use to swap or trade, rent or hire, buy or sell or give away virtually anything.

It is designed to encourage recycling and encourage people to think about sustainability, director Sharon George says.

“Initially we set up Swap or Trade it because we saw a gap in the online market space that wasn’t being met. There weren’t any good quality websites where you could do more than just buy or sell,” George says. “There were no websites that gave you the option to buy, sell, swap or trade, rent or hire or give away. One size doesn’t always fit all.”

The website doesn’t just allow people to swap objects. People can also swap their skills for stuff they need.

While George says she wants the business to be profitable, it’s not the main point of the business. The focus for her is on helping others to find ways to swap or trade things and to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly.

“There are many different avenues that we can pursue to build profitability, George says. “We have invested a significant amount of money in our business, because we are passionate about building a more sustainable economy, environment and community. We are currently developing multiple streams of income from different areas other than fee collection from users which will allow more people to use the site for free.”

So far the site has seen things like household furniture being exchanged for gardening work and boats being exchanged for Harley Davidsons. George says she can’t wait to see the site’s first house exchange.

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Eventfinda finds success in online business

Thursday, December 26th, 2013
Photo credit; Gildas Maquaire on Flickr

Photo credit; Gildas Maquaire on Flickr

James McGlinn, co-founder and chief executive of Eventfinda and an Entrepreneurs’ Organisation NZ member, has found much success with his online business.

Eventfinda is an online event marketing and ticketing company that around 800,000 New Zealanders use each month to find out what’s on.

The fastest growing area of business for Eventfinda is ticketing. Currently, at any given time, it is ticketing more than 400 different events, more than any other New Zealand ticketing company.

Eventfinda allows event promoters, organisers and venues to list their events for free, have that information distributed through a range of content partners, and control their own ticket sales. The Eventfinda platform has been successfully licensed in Europe and Australia and the company recently launched in the United States and Singapore.

McGlinn started the company when he was 26, saying that prior to Eventfinda’s launch, events in New Zealand had no central listing website, making it more difficult for people to find an event. The entrepreneur may have been young when he started Eventfinda, but he was already a veteran businessman, having started his own web hosting company, Entertainz, when he was 17.

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Garden Genie wins first prize in 4th annual Global Startup Battle

Friday, December 20th, 2013
Photo credit; James Mann on Flickr

Photo credit; James Mann on Flickr

New Zealand-based Garden Genie has won first prize at the 4th annual Global Startup Battle in the ecommerce category.

This is the first year there has been an ecommerce category, making Garden Genie its inaugural winner. The company also won the Auckland Startup Weekend in November.

Garden Genie beat out stiff competition to win the international competition in a field of over 1,000 other teams from over 40 countries with its combination of mobile app and e-commerce platform that walks gardeners through every step of growing organic produce.

The company’s prize includes a month-long e-commerce acceleration experience hosted by Bigcommerce in Austin, Texas in March. They also attend one of the most important international digital and startup gatherings, SXSW Interactive to talk and network with leading minds of the industry.

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Amazon aims to help New Zealand start-ups

Tuesday, December 17th, 2013
Photo credit; Marciookabe on Flickr

Photo credit; Marciookabe on Flickr

Since Rod Drury and Xero showed it is possible to take on the world with a locally developed product, New Zealand has been going through a bit of a tech boom and it’s only going to get bigger.

Last month, Amazon Web Services (AWS) was in town promoting itself as the first port of call for startups wanting hosting and other cloud services.

AWS recently boosted its new company offer with the launch of AWS Activate, a bundle of services for startups providing training, user support, a community forum and credits for services. At least some of those services are free for qualifying startups.

AWS country manager Ed Lenta said he has the wave of new technology companies coming out of New Zealand in his sights.

Lenta says AWS offers startups cloud computing services so they don’t have to waste money on technology infrastructure and so they can be on equal footing with more established competitors.

Beyond that, Lenta says, AWS can also give New Zealand startups a global footprint.

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Trade Me buys MotorWeb

Friday, December 13th, 2013
Photo credit; David Antis on Flickr

Photo credit; David Antis on Flickr

New Zealand-based internet auction site Trade Me has purchased New Zealand-based motor vehicle information company MotorWeb for NZ$19.5m.

The deal is conditional but expected to be completed later this month.

Founded in 1997, MotorWeb is an online business that operates in both New Zealand and Australia that packages and sells vehicle information and reports to finance companies, insurers, car dealers and the public. It offers a suite of more than a dozen products and services.

“The MotorWeb business has a lot of potential to complement our existing Trade Me Motors business, and will give us the chance to broaden and deepen the products and data we provide in relation to motor vehicles,” Trade Me CEO Jon Macdonald said.

MotorWeb staff would move across to join the Trade Me Motors team early next year.

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Tech-savvy small and medium businesses earn more, hire more: survey

Tuesday, November 26th, 2013
Photo credit; Karl Baron on Flickr

Photo credit; Karl Baron on Flickr

MYOB’s latest Business Monitor Report has found that businesses with a website are more likely to increase revenue and hire full-time staff in the year ahead. It also found the number of New Zealand firms going online is rising, albeit slowly.

In its survey of about 1,000 New Zealand small and medium enterprises, the accounting software firm found 38% of businesses with a website saw revenue increase in the year to August 2013, compared to only 26% of businesses without a website.

Half of businesses with a website said they expected to see their revenue increase in the year ahead, compared to 37% of those without.

And confidence was even higher among businesses with both a website and social media site with 63% expected revenue growth in the coming year.

MYOB’s James Scollay said businesses with an online presence were also more likely to take on new workers.

While 16% of small and medium enterprises with a website were planning to increase their full-time staff this year, only 6% without one had the same intentions.

However, Scollay also said he is seeing a “digital divide” emerging in the New Zealand economy.

“Businesses with an online presence reach more people and become more engaged with their customers. They also earn more, have more work in the pipeline, and are more likely to be hiring staff,” Scollay said.

The overall proportion of SMEs with a website was still concerning – less than 50% – but Scollay said he was encouraged to see it increasing.

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Online insurance shop launched in New Zealand

Thursday, November 21st, 2013
Photo credit - Alan Cleaver on Flickr

Photo credit - Alan Cleaver on Flickr

The internet continues to make it possible to do things for yourself and purchasing life insurance is one of those things.

And now, New Zealand-owned life insurance company, Fidelity Life, is celebrating a first for the life insurance industry with the launch of InsureYou – an innovative new service delivering a one stop online insurance shop.

Fidelity Life Chief Executive Milton Jennings says that direct-to-consumer online insurance sites have grown substantially in recent years and InsureYou now offers the next evolution in online insurance purchasing for New Zealanders.

“The online/direct insurance market is the fastest growing insurance market globally. Experience shows that many New Zealanders like the security of having professional advice to call on when purchasing insurance – that’s where InsureYou delivers,” says Mr Jennings.

“Compared to other nations, New Zealanders are typically underinsured. People opt out of the online purchasing process because it can be isolated without having the backup of personal advice. It’s at the times of claims during serious illness or major trauma events that people see the value in having a personal adviser. InsureYou delivers on both fronts – online convenience backed up by personal support.

“For clients themselves, InsureYou will change the way they think about insurance – no paper, no signature and no hassle, and the ability to engage an adviser if required.”

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Kathmandu bolsters online presence

Thursday, November 7th, 2013
outdoor-gear-jennifer-morrow1

Photo credit; Jennifer Morrow on Flickr

Outdoor clothing and equipment retailer Kathmandu has launched a new mobile website, which it says will be more convenient for customers browsing its online store on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers.

“The mobile site makes navigating and searching for information far more convenient, with less tapping, clicking and scrolling when using mobile devices,” Kathmandu said.

And the company says it’s in the process of developing additional online initiatives such as international shipping, mobile apps and services such as “click and collect”, where customers can buy a product online, then pick it up from a store.

The retailer said last month that online sales had grown by 55% in the year to July 31 and contributed 4% of total revenue.

That would equate to around $15.4 million of Kathmandu’s $384 million total sales figure in its last financial year.

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