Archive for the ‘online marketing’ Category
Tuesday, March 18th, 2014
Photo credit; Karl Baron on Flickr
Online spending grew last year, with New Zealanders spending $6 billion online last year, including almost $2 billion on travel and more than $800 million on entertainment.
However, Roy Morgan’s Pip Elliott says even though consumers are embracing the technology, they still prefer trusted retailers, citing that 45% of New Zealanders research online before buying in a shop, and 51% only buy online from retailers they know.
Less money was spent online on electronics, food and other products than the previous year.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: business, New Zealand, online, spending
Posted in E-mail & the internet, electronic spending, New Zealand, new zealand business, online marketing, Online Sales, online shopping, onlines store | No Comments »
Friday, December 20th, 2013
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.
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: business, ecommerce, Garden Genie, Global Startup Battle, New Zealand, online, organic, produce
Posted in E-mail & the internet, New Zealand, new zealand business, online marketing, Online Sales, online shopping, onlines store, Success story | No Comments »
Thursday, December 5th, 2013
Photo credit; Les Haines on Flickr
Auckland-based Ocula.com takes the Asia-Pacific art world into the 21st century.
The aim of the site, co-founded by Chris Taylor and Simon Fisher, is to help collectors do due diligence on possible purchases, enabling them to see exhibitions close up and providing them with details of each work’s provenance, history and creator.
“It’s like a virtual version of an art fair with the galleries all in one place. Except we’re on all the time – that’s where our model came from,” says Taylor.
The site, started two years ago and which is attracting two million page views a year, provides a zoom tool that allows individual brush strokes to be viewed.
Taylor says Ocula is selective, choosing galleries in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and North America whose works it displays.
The new business has a number of platforms. It has a consultancy service for collectors and an auction website, Ocula Black, which has sold works worth $3 million since 2011.
For the Ocula.com portal, galleries choose a monthly, quarterly or annual subscription which includes a range of marketing and advertising services.
With nearly 150 galleries on its books and $1.35 million invested of their own money, Fisher and Taylor are looking for just over $1 million of funding, an 18 per cent shareholding, to market Ocula to more international galleries.
“The potential funder or funders could be from the online, e-commerce, technology, publishing, marketing or media sectors or they might be a significant art collector or private art institution,” says Fisher.
He envisages hiring about a dozen more staff, adding to two in Hong Kong and three in New Zealand.
The company is forecasting revenue in 2015 of $2.365 million rising to $6.2 million in 2018.
Sales this year are running at $400,000.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: art, art gallery, Asia Pacific, Auckland, New Zealand, Ocula, Ocula.com
Posted in computer, E-mail & the internet, Going Digital, New Zealand, new zealand business, online marketing, Online Sales, onlines store, Success story, tablet, tablets | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 19th, 2013
Photo credit; Andrew Evans on Flickr
A new a business-to-business sports-picking app that was developed in New Zealand is garnering a lot of attention in marketing circles.
The app, Go Team, features an engagement programme that enables brands to connect with customers, clients, VIPs and staff.
Developed by Auckland-based bkaBoom, Go Team has already been officially adopted by the All Blacks and is the official sports tipping game of New Zealand rugby. Already 10 companies are running competitions in the ITM Cup national provincial championship.
Go Team is designed to accommodate a variety of team sports across various high-profile competitions both nationally and globally.
Brands pick a competition, invite a range of audiences to participate — clients, friends, staff, endorsers and the like — add prizes and kick off. Players compete to predict results, make their way up the leader board and collect prizes along the way, simultaneously being exposed to brand messages.
predicts apps such as Go Team are the future of staff and customer engagement.
“The tradition of the rugby sweep goes back generations and supports the premise that sports picking is the most fun way to engage with the people. Go Team is where the sweep and digital meet,” says bkaBoom CEO Barb Anderson.
The Go Team app is available on iPhone, Android, iPad and Windows and Mac.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: All Blacks, app, bkaBoom, Go Team, New Zealand Rugby, sports
Posted in app, E-mail & the internet, New Zealand, new zealand business, online marketing, smartphone, smartphones, social networking, Success story, tablet, tablets | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 6th, 2013
Photo credit; Butch Lebo on Flickr
New Zealand expat Rebekah Campbell, who started Posse.com, which she says is the world’s first social search engine, started selling flowers and golf balls by the side of the road when she was a child just because she likes the idea of starting a business.
The former Wellington native evolved to managing bands and originally established Posse.com as a way for bands to engage their fans to help promote them and sell concert tickets.
But after selling the fan engagement platform, Campbell rebranded Posse.com as a social search engine that helps people find the favourite places of their social network. The mobile app and site launched in March of this year and has signed more than 35,000 merchants worldwide, including 7000 New Zealand stores.
Users tell Posse what they want, such as “great coffee”, “brunch” or “a gym” anywhere in the world and they will get recommendations from their “posse” of friends and local experts.
It covers most world cities, including Auckland and Wellington. The denser the population the better.
A two-tier subscription model lets businesses send customers gifts and special offers. From next year, $50 and $100 monthly subscriptions will give stores access to additional features to help them build customer communities.
The successful business has attracted a lot of attention from major tech players.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: New Zealand, Posse, social network
Posted in consumers, E-mail & the internet, Facebook, New Zealand, new zealand business, online marketing, Online Sales, online shopping, onlines store, social media, social networking, Success story | No Comments »
Monday, October 14th, 2013
Photo credit; Steve on Flickr
If you have been thinking about starting an online business, but you also think you might be a little on the mature side for that, these two Kiwi sisters will be an inspiration to you.
Back in 2001, before online businesses really took off, sisters Rhondda Sweetman and Justine Kingi developed pioneering New Zealand online retailer, KiwiArtz.co.nz when they were in their 50s. They sold the business ten years later, in 2011.
The sisters shared what they describe as an undeveloped interest in NZ art and craft at the time and believed online retailing, although in its infancy back in 2001, would be an interesting way of sharing this work with the world.
They began it at a time when they had eased up on their full time jobs. Rhondda had been head of science at McCauley High School and was then doing part time teacher training at AUT University. Justine lectured in social policy and social work on the Bachelor of Social Practice degree at Unitec Institute of Technology when the two started their business.
The sisters say they got to the stage where they were representing over 100 New Zealand artists and other suppliers. Some of whom did very well out of the business. As the business grew the sisters were consistently busy all year round and rushed off their feet ahead of Christmas and other public holidays.The business grew so much, they had to automate their accounting practices and hired other employees.
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: art, business, KiwiArtz.co.nz, New Zealand, online
Posted in Exporting, New Zealand, new zealand business, online marketing, Online Sales, online shopping, onlines store, shopping, Success story | No Comments »
Friday, October 11th, 2013
Photo credit; Blaise Alleyne on Flickr
New Zealanders spent $5.4 billion online last financial year according to Roy Morgan Research’s Digital Universe report, but despite that seemingly large number, Kiwi money largely remains outside the digital realm.
“The bulk of New Zealand’s net wealth is not yet in the digital universe,” Roy Morgan client services director Howard Seccombe says.
The reason for that is the baby boomers who have the wealth only deal in the fringes of digital technology. That will change over time as the boomers age out and the next generation who is more familiar with digital technologies take over.
Other findings from the report included:
- This year’s survey shows 61% of New Zealanders are worried about their privacy, Â up 11% from the survey carried out four years ago.
- Smartphones have seen spectacular growth, with 1.4 million users. That’s a growth of 227% in four years.
- Right now 39% of New Zealanders have smartphones.
- The Roy Morgan numbers show smartphones amplify people’s digital behaviour. Smartphone owners are ten times as likely to shop online as non-smartphone owners, eight times as likely to bank online and nine times as likely to view video clips.
- Roy Morgan notes a dramatic 20% decline in desktop ownership. This echoes the fall in traditional PC sales. Meanwhile tablets have grown 557% in the past four years.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: baby boomer, business, digital, New Zealand, online, Roy Morgan Research, wealth
Posted in computer, consumers, E-mail & the internet, Going Digital, New Zealand, new zealand business, online marketing, online messaging, Online Sales, online security, online shopping, onlines store, smartphone, smartphones, tablet, tablets, wi-fi | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 11th, 2013
A New Zealand carpet company was appalled that its online advertisements had been running on a social media site associate with a rash of teen suicides.
The site, ask.fm, is aimed at insecure teenagers, who are encouraged to ask anonymous questions. But, showing social media’s dark potential, the site has attracted trolls who post spiteful comments on the site in response to the questions.
Ads from New Zealand’s Cavalier Bremworth were running on the site, prompting the company to request that Google cease running their ads on it.
Company spokeswoman Desiree Keown says the company’s media agency briefed Google on where to place its ads, but it was obviously ignored.
“I was alerted late yesterday afternoon and we asked immediately, our media agency contacted Google immediately to ask them to take it down.”
She says: “We were not happy at all to be associated with a website like this.
“It’s not a good look and obviously we were very concerned to have it removed immediately.”
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: ask.fm, Cavalier Bremworth, New Zealand, online advertising
Posted in Google, New Zealand, new zealand business, offensive material, online marketing, social media, social networking | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 7th, 2013
The New Zealand government has taken it upon itself to urge New Zealand businesses to use internet technology better.
At a conference in early July in Wellington, the New Zealand Productivity Commission said the country’s productivity growth has been persistently low when compared to other OECD countries.
Among the problems were the fact that information communications technology (ICT) is not used as well as it could be to improve business productivity in New Zealand.
Sapere Research Group principal Hayden Glass, who spoke about research he conducted with Eli Hefter on the subject, said the debate was currently stuck on business access to technology.
“The debate should no longer be about access and it should go beyond technology. The debate is now about business use.”
According to Statistics New Zealand, 70 per cent of businesses in New Zealand had a website, which was less than the 96 per cent of companies which used the internet.
Of these websites, though, only 19 per cent had the capacity to accept online orders, and only 12 per cent would accept online payments.
Most of these websites were “basically brochures”, Glass said.
“In terms of selling things our businesses are much less developed.
“There’s still some work to do in terms of taking advantage of the technologies that are available.”
New Zealand was ranked seventh in the world for use of the internet but only seventeenth when it came to the country’s ability ability to extract economic value from the internet.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: business, internet, New Zealand, statistics
Posted in E-mail & the internet, Going Digital, New Zealand, new zealand business, New Zealand government, online marketing, Online Sales | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 30th, 2013
Two New Zealand women have tapped into the the country’s tourist trade to create a burgeoning online business.
Wendy London from Hawera and Deborah DeNard of Wellington are set to launch CruiseBubble.com, New Zealand’s first online guide specifically for visiting cruise passengers, in October.
Currently, the two women are accepting registrations from businesses that want to be featured on the site.
“Our target is 1500 for this season and anything above that is really cool,” London said.
The idea was born in 2005 out of Tourism New Zealand’s desire to use the internet more to promote the island nation.
“Tourism New Zealand released the 2005-2015 strategy and one of the key issues there was to ensure tourism businesses could utilise broadband,” London said.
CruiseBubble.com does just that, telling cruise passengers where to shop, what attractions to visit and who to call for anything they might need, all in one handy internet location.
In 2012, 130 cruise ships visited New Zealand with 755 port calls and a total of 209,000 visitors – compared to 17,000 in 1996. Contribution to GDP was $410m with 5633 jobs created.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: business, cruise, New Zealand, online, tourism
Posted in broadband, New Zealand, new zealand business, New Zealand government, online marketing, social networking, Success story | No Comments »
