Waikato Business News May/June 2021

26 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS May/June 2021
Hamilton’s ecommerce
success stories
The world of retail has changed. Retail was
once confined to a physical store, but now
Hamilton-based retailers sell to customers
all around New Zealand, and even the
world, through the power of ecommerce.
Fifteen years ago, way
back in 2006, I was privileged
to be in a small
group of young entrepreneurs
who were taken on a personalised
tour of Torpedo7’s
warehouse in Melville by
co-founder Guy Howard-Willis.
He told us how Torpedo7
had begun from his son and
co-founder Luke’s passion for
mountain biking. Launched in
2004, Torpedo7 had quickly
experienced explosive growth.
Standing in their large
warehouse packed with bikes
and bike accessories, and hearing
their story of growth, it
seemed amazing that people
would buy bikes and accessories
online, in such large numbers.
It was one of the first very
THE DIGITAL WORLD
> BY JOSH MOORE
Josh Moore leads the team at Duoplus - a Hamilton-based
digital marketing agency that helps businesses grow through
highly measurable online marketing. www.duoplus.nz
successful ecommerce stores
in New Zealand.
But it turned out that what
felt like an enormous warehouse
at that time was just the
beginning. Guy told us that
they were working on launching
another idea which they
thought might be even bigger
than Torpedo7. The next year
they launched 1-day.co.nz,
which expanded their target
audience from biking and
sporting enthusiasts to “anyone
with a credit card” as Guy
put it. The 24-hour daily deal
concept put their growth on
steroids.
Every day at 11:51am the
email announcing today’s
crazy deals would arrive in
hundreds of thousands of
inboxes across the country.
The specials would go live at
noon and every day thousands
of items would be sold. During
their famous “bag of crap”
sales they sometimes sold over
40,000 items within 24 hours.
All of this from an ecommerce
store based in Melville.
In 2013 The Warehouse
Group purchased a 51 percent
stake in Torpedo7 for $33
million, and then went on to
acquire full ownership. It was
only after this acquisition that
Torpedo7 moved into bricksand-mortar
stores. Before
that, they were exclusively an
ecommerce store.
Ecommerce has the power
to break down geographic
barriers and help local stores
reach customers around New
Zealand, and even the world.
While Topedo7 might be
the pinnacle example of ecommerce
success from Hamilton,
there are many other ecommerce
success stories to be
told.
Many Hamilton bricksand-mortar
retail stores have
successful ecommerce sites.
Health2000, whose head office
is in Hamilton, has 64 stores
around New Zealand, and a
thriving ecommerce store too.
Mobility Centre has stores
around the North Island, as
well as a booming ecommerce
store.
EquipOutdoors in Frankton
launched initially purely
online, with a DIY website and
a TradeMe account. Now, even
with only one physical store, it
is one of the large camping and
outdoor equipment retailers
in New Zealand, thanks to its
ecommerce site.
Other local ecommerce
success stories include Eliot
Jessep’s Costume World,
which was acquired by an Australian
supplier, and his current
business Game Kings which
Eliot says did just shy of $200K
in sales just in the period of
Black Friday to Cyber Monday
last year. Game Kings is partly
owned by Alex Mark, who also
owns Sportsfuel, which has a
thriving ecommerce site and
a growing number of physical
stores.
Then there are the little
companies you have never
heard of that are taking on the
world from Hamilton, such as
Block Blue Light – a highly
successful ecommerce store
that sells their products in New
Zealand, Australia and UK.
And PressureBall – an innovative
tennis product that sells
to customers all around the
world.
Further Hamilton ecommerce
success stories include
Patney (the anti-snoring
pillow), Greenlea Butcher,
MotoX Parts, Powerhouse
Fitness, BuggyBoard NZ, and
many more.
Ecommerce does an amazing
job of removing barriers
to business growth. However,
having an ecommerce store
isn’t a guarantee of nationwide
expansion. One local shop I
spoke to has an ecommerce
store with over 1300 products
available, but gets very few
online sales.
The key comes down to
having the right online marketing
to put your product in front
of your ideal target market.
“Build it and they will come”
doesn’t work in ecommerce.
Once you have an online
store you need to use a combination
of digital marketing
methods to get hungry buyers
to your site. Depending on your
products and target market,
your digital marketing could
include Google Ads (search
ads, shopping ads, display),
SEO to get ranked highly in
search engines, Facebook and
Instagram ads, YouTube ads,
organic social media, email
campaigns and more.
The power of ecommerce
combined with the right digital
marketing mix is immense.
Especially with how measurable
results are online.
The online version of this
article on the Duoplus blog
will include a list of ecommerce
stores based in the
Waikato. If you run an ecommerce
store from here in the
Waikato, I’d love to include
you on the list. Just email me
at josh@duoplus.nz
Let’s continue to create
more amazing ecommerce
success stories!
What the zero carbon bill and carbon
neutrality mean for business
By RACHAEL GODDARD
Consensus on human-induced
climate change
is unequivocal. The
International Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) states that 100
percent of global warming
over the past 60 years is predominantly
human caused.
Since the Kyoto Protocol
in 1997, atmospheric carbon
dioxide has risen from
364ppm to 417ppm. The current
rise in CO2 is at least 300
times faster than the combined
effect of natural processes
during the last ten thousand
years.
Scientists predict by the
end of the century that, if we
do not act now, forecasted
3-4°C temperature increases
will be devastating. For
New Zealand this will mean
increased drought, as evidenced
in Waikato with four
out of the last five years being
declared droughts. On farms,
dry matter production was
down by 20 percent over those
5 years. The Ministry for the
Environment (NZ) predict
that temperatures will be 1
degree higher within 25 years,
and that the length of time in
drought will increase. Spring
rainfall is likely to decrease
by 4 percent, whereas heavy
rainfall events are likely to
become more frequent.
There is consensus from
climate scientists that temperatures
must be stabilised
at 1.5°C. Globally, this means
halving greenhouse gas emissions
every decade from now
to approach net zero emissions
by 2050.
In 2019, the New Zealand
Government passed the Zero
Carbon Bill, a piece of legislation
which sets an ambitious
target: to reduce all greenhouse
gases (except biogenic
methane) to net zero by 2050,
and a reduction of between
24 percent and 47 percent of
methane emissions by 2050.
These targets are intended to
keep global warming to within
1.5°C by 2050.
Public sector and crown
entities in New Zealand are
now either being ‘encouraged’
or ‘directed’ to track, certify
and report on the greenhouse
gas emissions to achieve carbon
neutrality by 2025. For
example, the DHBs have to
measure, verify and report
their emissions annually, set
gross emissions reductions
targets with longer-term
reduction plans for the next
decade and, by December
2025, offset any remaining
emissions to achieve carbon
neutrality. Other requirements
include an immediate focus
on phasing out the largest and
most active coal boilers. Government
agencies are also now
required to purchase electric
vehicles and reduce the size
of their car fleet, and Green
standards are required for all
public sector buildings.
In addition, trail blazing
legislation from the Government
has rendered climate-related
disclosures mandatory
for 200 of New Zealand’s biggest
businesses by 2023.
It is likely that the Government
will adopt the Climate
Change Commission recommendations
(there were over
15,000 submissions on this),
which, amongst many things,
suggests that targets should be
strengthened and our international
agreements and commitments
(such as the UN
Climate Pledge and the Paris
Agreement, to limit our global
warming at 1.5°C) be revised
and improved.
Prime Minister Jacinda
Ardern declared a climate
emergency last year and set
the target for 100 percent
renewable energy by 2035.
She confirmed that the Government
would be revising the
climate pledge this year, coupled
with a draft carbon budget
that sets targets for reduction.
The draft carbon budget
aims to ensure that New Zealand
will emit 5.6 percent less
greenhouse gases than it did
in 2018, each year from 2022
and 2025. Between 2026 and
2030 the target will jump to
14.7 percent for each year, and
25.9 percent for every year
between 2031 and 2035.
The cost of being carbon
neutral has been estimated
by the Commission at around
1 percent of projected GDP,
or $190m a year over the
next four years, $11.5 billion
($2.3b a year) over the following
five years and $21.5b
($4.3b a year) from 2030-35.
Another report by NZIER,
suggests it could cost $85
billion annually, 16% of projected
GDP, by 2050.
The cost of not doing anything
is predicted to be much
higher. In 2020, Deloitte
reported that inaction on climate
change could reduce
Australia’s economy by 6
percent, resulting in 880,000
fewer jobs by 2070, losing
A$3.4 trillion (NZ$3.6t) over
the next 50 years.
As these major and crucial
changes are implemented, it
is predicted that other sectors
will also be obliged to report,
track and offset their emissions.
Now is the time for all
businesses to start preparing
for these changes.
Deloitte Head of Strategy
and Sustainability Deborah
Lucas said, “companies which
Rachael Goddard
fail to deliver on climate
change commitments could
end up facing reputational
damage and lost sales”. She
also suggests that “companies
who don’t act proactively
could find themselves forced
to change by legislation and
regulation”.
So, what can businesses do
to prepare?
There are numerous tools
online that can assist, such as
the SBN climate action toolbox,
which is free. This can
help you understand the areas
you need to focus on and the
carbon calculators that you
can use to track greenhouse
gas emitting activities: travel,
waste, water, energy, accommodation,
hire cars, possibly
gases and freight. The next
step is to produce a plan or
strategy for setting targets
and reducing emissions. This
needs to involve and engage
staff and be embedded into
practices. Offsetting is not
mandatory at this stage, but
likely in the future.
In 2018, a survey by IAG
highlighted that climate
change was important to 79
percent of New Zealanders.
There is no doubt that this
is one of the most pressing
and challenging issues of our
time, and we will need to
adapt and act.
• Rachael Goddard is the
director of ECOES, which
specialises in sustainability
planning, mapping, frameworks,
and tracking greenhouse
gas emissions.