Posts Tagged ‘Amazon’

New Zealand independent book stores take on the big digital stores on their own turf

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2014
Photo courtesy of Brenda Clarke on Flickr

Photo courtesy of Brenda Clarke on Flickr

New Zealand independent book sellers are going head to head with the big online players like Amazon by playing their game.

Independent stores such as Unity Books in Wellington and Auckland, Ponsonby Road’s Women’s Bookshop and Timeout in Mt Eden all reported good Christmas periods last year and promising growth in 2014, and they’ve made strides in the online world, too, selling e-books and physical books through their respective book stores.

Approximately 10% of sales at the Women’s Bookshop come from its online store and customers seem undeterred that its prices aren’t as competitive as Amazon.

”People are politically aware and many think that to support [tax exempt] Amazon is an unethical act. We can often get our books out to customers faster on a courier,” owner of the Women’s Bookshop, Carole Beu, said.

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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.

To read more about this story, click here.