More NZ businesses now online thanks to MYOB and Westpac
(19 June 2013 – New Zealand) An initiative to get New Zealand small and medium enterprises (SMEs) online with websites has celebrated its first birthday, marking significant milestones.
GetOnline.co.nz reported that over 11,000 businesses had built their presence online with the website – an MYOB and Westpac initiative providing a website builder that makes it easy for every Kiwi business to get online.
Launched in June 2012, GetOnline.co.nz gives local SMEs a free domain name and enables them to build a business website free of charge for one year. In that time participating businesses have received an aggregate of more than 1.3 million visits to their websites.
The industries most likely to take up the GetOnline.co.nz opportunity were business services (27 percent), retail (25 percent) and construction and trade (16 percent). Overall, approximately 2600 use the e-commerce facility and have 35,000 products available for purchase.
MYOB General Manager Business Division James Scollay, said GetOnline.co.nz was designed to assist local SME’s get online in response to finding that more than two-thirds of New Zealand SMEs didn’t have a business website.
"Three quarters of New Zealanders research their purchase decisions online, yet only one third have a business website."
"This means a significant number of New Zealand business owners are missing out on sales and marketing opportunities. Helping another 11,000 kiwi business get online is a great start and we hope to have even more SME’s take advantage of this initiative in the coming year," he said.
Westpac General Manager Business Banking, Mark Fitz-Gerald said; "Clearly this is an initiative that is filling a significant need for local businesses (SMEs)."
"The response reflects the demand for companies to be visible and become more competitive online. It’s made a material difference to the number of New Zealand businesses operating online."