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BNH Members’ News
Zeald offers free e-commerce websites to New Zealand SMEs
The company’s Get eCommerce Movement (GEM) “COVID-19 digital transformation fund for small and medium-sized businesses” has already provided 500 sites.
As businesses scramble to adapt to the effects and repercussions of COVID-19, one local website development company is providing a free digital lifeline.
In the first tranche of the project, Zeald, which has its head office in Tawa Drive, has been developing 500 fully functional e-commerce websites for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for free (excluding transaction fees).
Chairman David Kelly says that this is a major pivot and new mission David Kelly for Zeald, specifically to help SMEs survive by swiftly evolving the way they do business. “The COVID-19 emergency has seen a quick shift by thousands of New Zealanders to online purchasing. Some e-commerce sellers have been overwhelmed and had to prioritise customers.”
John Houma is one of Zeald’s digital growth specialists. He strongly encourages SMEs to consider their “pathway to purchase” and, in “The COVID-19 emergency has seen a quick shift by particular, what components will need to be thousands of New Zealanders to online purchasing.” adapted for contactless, e-commerce. “Even when the country is back to some sort of normality, why would we all return to the old ways of shopping? This is an opportunity to improve or expand your business, but you need to identify the points along the sales process that need improvement. For example, how are you going to fulfil the picking and packing or the couriering of the goods?”
“Every business owner should be considering how they can diversify the products or services they offer,” he says.
The e-commerce sites are available to a number of industry sectors, including food and beverages, medical John Houma services sales, electronic goods, security products, and pet food and products.
Since the initial tranche of 500 websites has been fully allocated, Zeald has launched GEM 2.0, and pledged to offer 50 free e-commerce websites every week, ongoing.
More information, including T&Cs, additional charges and hosting plan fees, can be found at zeald.com/500-free-websites.html
Local businesses supporting each other
To read more about the free services and resources on offer go to the Business Initiatives page of businessnh.org.nz
Foundation Coffee’s 12,000 free “Coffee for Carers”
The Piermark Drive-based coffee specialists helped NZ’s frontline healthcare workers enjoy a well-deserved hot drink during lockdown.
The team at Foundation Coffee came up with the idea of Coffee for Carers when they heard that hospital canteens were closed for isolation purposes, leaving the emergency department health staff nowhere to go for their much-needed cups of coffee or hot chocolate.
CEO Jamie Galloway explains, “We could see how much pressure the frontline hospital workers were under [so] we rang a couple of hospitals and offered our services. It’s awesome to think that we provided more than 12,000 drinks.”
Foundation Coffee installed two of their machines at Waitakere and North Shore hospitals. The team also ensured that these were always stocked with the coffee, hot chocolate and milk needed to keep the hospital staff going 24/7.
Marja Peters, charge nurse manager in the Waitakere Hospital Emergency Department, described it as “a wonderful gesture”.
Speaking when New Zealand was at Alert Level 4, she said, “The coffee machine has quickly become the staff’s new best friend,
Almost 1,000 Kiwis participated in April’s Hack the Crisis NZ virtual hackathon. Swiftly is one of the 48-hour innovation challenge’s success stories.
Swiftly is one of BNH’s newest members, with its head office at The Crate on Constellation Drive. Matt Weston, Walter Lim and Will Seagar created the platform to help small businesses get online as quickly and easily as possible. In fact, they reckon business owners should be able to set up their own store and have it online in under 15 minutes! And, the service is free.
Matt explains, “Once you’re signed up, you can share your store link with your customers and let them order online for click and collect or delivery without worrying about any of the technical stuff to make it work.”
At the time of writing, Swiftly has almost 600 stores, and has seen more than $100,000 in transactions. Small businesses from a myriad of sectors are jumping onto the platform, including bakeries, jewellers, garden centres, lawyers, massage therapists, and artists.
Start selling online… Swiftly!
To learn more, go to swiftly.nz
especially with the Waitakere Hospital coffee shop closed until further notice. We have rarely received such a kind and timely gift. This is so much appreciated by our team.”
