Posts Tagged ‘New South Wales’
Monday, July 14th, 2014
Photo courtesy of Widjaya Ivan on Flickr
Roselyn Joy Wilson, formerly of Oak Flats, New South Wales, has been fined $6,510 by Fair Trading and ordered to pay a total $11,120 compensation to six customers for scamming them via her fake internet business.
Dozens of customers complained about not receiving generators purchased from Wilson’s online business, Quality Direct Pty Ltd.
The fake online business, www.qualitydirect.com.au, purported to sell generators at a discounted price, provided customers pay for goods upfront.
At least six customers were ripped off between February and June, 2012, after they deposited sums of almost $2000 each into an account but received no generators.
“Consumers were left high and dry by [Wilson], who simply stopped taking calls from frustrated people demanding to know when their generator would be delivered,” Fair Trading Commissioner Rod Stowe said.
“It appears [she] had no intention of supplying the goods she received payment for and she then failed to co-operate with Fair Trading once consumers sought our intervention.
“Failing to provide goods and services in a timely manner is a breach of the Australian Consumer Law and Fair Trading will take action against any online trader who thinks they will get away with such dishonest behaviour.”
Fair Trading received more than 50 complaints about the business in 2011 and 2012, prompting it to warn the public about dealing with Wilson or Quality Direct.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Fair Trading, fines, generators, New South Wales, Oak Flats, Quality Direct, Roselyn Joy Wilson, scam
Posted in Australia, cybercrime, E-mail & the internet, Federal Government, fine, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, web-based | No Comments »
Monday, March 3rd, 2014
Photo credit; Tatiana Gerus on Flickr
When Jane Cay bought an existing retail business in the small New South Wales town of Cooma in 2004, it was an eclectic mix of saddlery, Akubra hats and women’s fashion and employed five staff.
After removing the outfitters merchandise and honing in on women’s fashion, the business began to grow solidly at a rate of 10-20% per year. And in 2006, given the growth in online business, Cay made the decision to take Birdsnest online.
“We quickly realised that we weren’t in the business of selling dresses — we were in the business of solving a woman’s wardrobe dilemma,” Cay says.
She did a lot of online research to get her website up and running and develop the brand, focusing on giving online customers the same high standard of customer service that the in-store customers received.
Cay’s thorough planning and commitment to the website and customer service has paid off: since the website started, the business has grown to more than 100 team members, the website records five million page views or 500,000 visits every month, and it sells to people all over Australia and the world.
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, Birdsnest, business, Cooma, New South Wales, online
Posted in Australia, business, E-mail & the internet, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, Success story | No Comments »
Monday, October 14th, 2013
Photo credit; Naomi King on Flickr
In a reversal of sorts, two women who hail from Napa Valley in California made the move to Sydney to open an online fashion boutique.
While Silicon Valley might seem like the obvious choice for the women, Tessa Mini and Natalia Nowak, moved to Australia instead and were inspired by what they consider Australian women’s fashion consciousness to create Passionista Boutique, run out of their Sydney apartment.
“We package everything, we write all the slips, it’s our baby,” Mini said.
“At first we couldn’t afford a model,” she recalled, so Mini and Nowak modeled the clothing themselves. “I did the entire website myself,” Mini said, and “we do all digital marketing mainly from Instagram and Facebook.”
“We get a steady flow — about five orders a week,” Mini said. Their goal is to grow the business, selling closer to 20 items a week, she said.
Passionista sells a range of clothing including jackets, dresses, tops and accessories. Prices range from $25 to $65 in U.S. dollars. The business ships internationally.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, fashion, Instagram, Napa Valley, Natalia Nowak, New South Wales, online, Passionista Boutique, Sydney, Tessa Mini
Posted in Australia, business, Facebook, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, social media, social networking, Success story | No Comments »
Thursday, September 5th, 2013
Online clothing swapping site 99Dresses, founded by Nikki Durkin from New South Wales in 2010, has been growing since the day it launched.
The young entrepreneur said that it was a tough go launching the site, but once she got it up and running, she valued the experience and learned a lot from it.
“The most challenging thing is figuring out you’re going to run out of money before you’re going to take off. It’s frustrating; it’s a tough feeling. You feel like you’re drowning a bit, but I got very lucky,” Durkin says.
That luck was in the form of her decision to enter a $10,000 business competition, which she won, followed by her admission to Y Combinator — an organisation that provides seed funding to a select number of start-ups.
To read more on this story, click here or here.
Tags: 99Dresses, Australia, business, New South Wales, Nikki Durkin, online
Posted in Australia, business, innovation, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, Success story | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 4th, 2013
Pamper Hamper Gifts, which won an Australian Small Business National Winner award in 2012, was established way back in 2004 by Bianca Kristallis.
Based in Sydney, Kristallis had the vision for her business after seeing that hampers were hampered by an inherent tackiness. Believing she could do better and bring the ‘wow factor’ back to hamper gifts, and Pamper Hamper Gifts was born and is still going strong today and winning business awards along the way.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, award, award winning, business, gifts, hampers, New South Wales, online, Pamper Hamper Gifts, small business award, Sydney
Posted in Australia, awards, business, gift guide, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, Success story | No Comments »
Friday, August 30th, 2013
Erica Fanning established the self-titled Erica Fanning Interior Styling in Sydney in 2012 with the intention of being able to provide interior decorating services to anyone in Australia and beyond via e-decorating. E-decorating sees people send Fanning their room dimensions via email and getting a complete room design package back, complete with places where clients can purchase everything needed to complete the room’s proposed look.
For more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, Erica Fanning Interior Styling, interior decorating, New South Wales, online, Sydney
Posted in Australia, business, E-mail & the internet, innovation, internet usage, online business, Success story | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 20th, 2013
Established in New South Wales in 2012 by Louise Vansleve, Learn Cake Decorating Online does exactly what its name implies and teaches people how to decorate cakes from the comfort of wherever it is they happen to like doing their baking.
Vansleve was struck with the idea for the online business while trying to make the perfect cake for her young daughter and instinctively knew that other people would be interested in learning this skill.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, Learn Cake Decorating Online, New South Wales, online
Posted in Australia, business, innovation, internet usage, online business, Success story | No Comments »
Friday, August 16th, 2013
Google yesterday announced Australia’s most web-savvy towns with its second eTown Awards, celebrating cities and regions whose small businesses make the best use of the web to connect with customers and grow.
Australia’s winning eTowns by state and territory are:
- Cockburn, WA
- Darwin, NT
- Holdfast Bay, SA
- Launceston, Tasmania
- North Sydney, NSW
- Port Phillip, Vic
- South Canberra, ACT
- Sunshine Coast, Qld
Claire Hatton, Head of Local Business, Google Australia, told Dynamic Business that business operators who successfully integrate digital strategies are simply more competitive.
“We see through our research that small businesses that actually use digital are more successful — they grow revenue and employ more people,” Hatton said. “This web advantage also extends to towns and regions which need no longer rely on a single local resource or industry to prosper. A town’s real assets are now their small businesses owners and employees,” Hatton said.
The link between digital engagement and commercial success has been firmly established, and a recent report by Deloitte Access Economics published in April this year found that Australian small businesses with high digital engagement are twice as likely to be growing revenue, and earn twice as much revenue per employee. They are also four times more likely to be hiring additional staff.
“The location of your shop front or size of your workforce doesn’t matter online. Every business has the opportunity to engage customers and grow,” Hatton said. “Whether you’re a boutique hotel, beautician or surf school, if you’re not online you’re missing out on a direct line to thousands of potential customers.”
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, Australia Capital Territory, business, Cockburn, Darwin, eTown Awards, Holdfast Bay, Launceston, New South Wales, North Sydney, Northern Territory, online, Port Phillip, Queensland, South Australia, South Canberra, Sunshine Coast, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia
Posted in Australia, business, E-mail & the internet, Google, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online stores, selling online, technology | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 13th, 2013
United Kingdom online betting giant William Hill has agreed to purchase Australian online betting firm Tom Waterhouse for at least A$34 million.
The online betting site has agreed to pay A$34 million up front and assume A$6 million in debt for tomwaterhouse.com.
It will pay up to A$70 million more on a sliding scale based on tomwaterhouse.com achieving earnings growth between A$10 million and A$30 million in 2015.
Tomwaterhouse.com was established in 2010 and is one of Australia’s fastest growing online racing and sports betting businesses.
It is a privately held company owned by managing director Tom Waterhouse and others and has around 80 employees based in Sydney, Melbourne and Darwin.
“We are pleased to have secured this acquisition,” Ralph Topping, CEO of William Hill. “International expansion is a key part of our growth strategy and making Australia our second home is a priority. Acquiring tomwaterhouse.com gives us a rapidly growing business that appeals to a complementary customer base.”
Australia has the world’s biggest gambling habit per capita.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, betting, Britain, business, Darwin, gambling, Melbourne, New South Wales, Northern Australia, online, online gambling, Sydney, tomwaterhouse.com, United Kingdom, Victoria, William Hill
Posted in Australia, business, Expansion to Australia, online business | No Comments »
Monday, August 12th, 2013
Established in 2013 by Leah Bridge and stationed in Central Coast, New South Wales, Navy Crockett is an online boutique to buy gifts for the hard-to-buy-for man in your life.
Navy Crockett is actually the second business for the busy Bridge. She also has a design studio that she operates. Thankfully she embraces the chaos and variety of running the two very different businesses.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, Central Coast, Navy Crockett, New South Wales, online
Posted in Australia, business, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, Success story | No Comments »
