Nielsen Net Ratings latest press release shows that shopping wannabe Ferrit was third in the online shopping traffic rankings behind 1-day.co.nz. At 2.96% of the weekly unique browsers of Trade Me, and still offering a bunch of shopping categories, Ferrit continues to be irrelevant.
Second placed (but still tiny) 1-day is interesting – they specialize in 1 day sales of sports equipment. Tiny in the scheme of things, but huge in their space.
1-day are part of 4th ranked Torpedo7. Torpedo7 is an Australian NZ (edit – see below) based seller of Bicycle and extreme equipment – and they look like a fun bunch and sell into both countries through .co.nz and .com.au websites.
The Torpedo7 site is simple eCommerce – and it is great to see a specialty retailer show the likes of Ferrit how to do it. We need more businesses like this, much more.
{Update: Thanks to Bruce/bwooce’s comment below. It seems that Torpedo7 is a NZ company. I found more evidence in the shipping information for each site: Australia 5-7 days.
Meanwhile you’ll get your stuff in New Zealand in just 1-3 days. Very cunning disguising of the origin of stuff in the Australia site.}
Lance Wiggs 
I thought Torpedo7 was Hamilton based? In fact I’m sure they have a huge warehouse there (seen on google maps :-) as the home base.
NZO (bike clothing) also seem to be from the same people…
I had a pending blog post that linked them all together and back again, I just wanted to do some more investigation to see if they had any other companies.
They’ve been amazingly successful and good luck to them. I wonder if they are in fact the biggest internet retailer in NZ?
Bruce
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Thanks Bruce – I updated the post.
They could dwell be the biggest, after Trade Me of course, and perhaps Dick Smith and ??. Actually that Netratings list is interesting for who is not on it more than who is on.
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for example – where is RealGroovy?
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“They’ve been amazingly successful and good luck to them. I wonder if they are in fact the biggest internet retailer in NZ?”
Not to take anything away from Torpedo7 who have done an amazing job with online retail in New Zealand but I think you are forgetting EziBuy. I’m guessing these would blow away most online stores in New Zealand as their traditional background is catalogue selling (a perfect match for online)
@lancewiggs Real Groovy are no longer on Market Intelligence AFAIK.
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It doesn’t surprise me that ferrit is struggling and have done since they launched. This shows money can not buy everything.
Torpedo7 have aligned themselves to the NZ culture. Where we are always up for a bargain. Basically this is the primary reason why 1-day.co.nz is such a success.
Keep up the good work T7!
Regarding other players in online retail. Not everyone is prepared to put themselves on Nielsen Market Intelligence, so unfortunately we are unable to compare against everyone.
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{Lance – tried posting this once before, if it turns up twice, pls ignore / delete}
along with http://www.ezibuy.co.nz, and realgroovy.co.nz, notable exceptions would have to include http://www.airnz.co.nz & http://www.fishpond.co.nz – though, as glen said, isn’t there absence simply because they don’t subscribe to NNRatings service?
great to see digirama plugging away, ahead of smokecds.com. would be great to see how they compare to NZ iTunes. also suprised to see sellmefree so high up. –> i guess it would be much more interesting to see conversion & sales across the whole market, rather than just traffic to participant sites…
“We need more businesses like this, much more” – sites that could / should be in the list if they successfully execute their stated strategies would include http://www.thedeal.co.nz and – dare i say it – http://www.yellowpages.co.nz. any others out there?
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@Bwooce – NZO are a different company and have been around for a lot longer than Torpedo7. However, they are using Torpedo7’s infrastructure for their online sales and shipping. This could be another business opportunity for Torpedo7 – to partner with more companies to manage their online sales and shipping. Everyone who has ever dealt with Torpedo7 raves about their awesome shipping times. I’ve often ordered from Wellington in the afternoon and had the goods turn up at 7am the next morning.
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Yes Stuart, you are correct. They share the same warehouse in Collins St in the Tron. I just purchased some bike trousers off NZO -rrp$119 and $7.50 shipping. Torp7 sell the same but have rrp$149, less 20% = $119, and ship for $10. so i queried it. i have not researched ownership through the Companies Office yet, just taken thier word for it. however, my question is – how can NZO ship me pants from Collins Rd to Wgtn for $7.50, and T7 costs $10 for the same. They use the same courier company too, as i use both sites. also, i query the RRP since no-one else other than T7 sell NZOs pants. not sure how the Commerce Commission will see this – no competition from my point of view.
And i was looking at Ferrit to pass some time today. so today i wasted some time. But anyway, at least some of my shares headed North today, unlike Lances !!!!!!
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Fundamental lesson here I think is that Torpedo 7 focussed on one category (bikes) and made that work before they went broader. Ferrit tried to do everything at once so no-one is really sure what you can and can’t buy on the site. I use Ferrit for some basic stuff (nappies) and the odd bargain – spend about $100 a month there constantly. Torpedo7 gets less frequent but larger lumps of cash. I think they do a great job.
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@tylersdad – I think the reason that Torpedo7 charges different shipping fees is that they only have two main shipping fees*: $7.50 for under $50, and $10 for anything over $50. So they might lose some money on shipping for some orders but then make up for it with the smaller orders. They’ve obviously done their sums and I’m sure they aren’t losing any money on shipping overall.
NZO only have one shipping fee as they can be sure that anything bought from them (just clothes) will not cost them more than $7.50.
(* Torpedo7 also have another shipping fee which applies to bikes and costs $50)
I also think that we’ll start to see Torpedo7 expand into more and more markets, but probably staying focused on the sports/outdoor markets initially.
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shall we lay bets on Torp7’s next marketing target.
i think they could well do a ‘ball sports’ -sell rugby,soccer,league,aussie rules, perhaps even cricket, gear.
it would seem a logical option for them.
or perhaps move the cricket into a ‘cricket,hockey, tennis,badminton,squash, section.
well thats 2 more tabs for them. if they see this and act on it – do i get a royalty payment !!!!!!
i think if they did it right they could perhaps move to a listing on the NZAX. i might be keen for a few shares in the IPO. it would have a better chance than the BFW that i got (and sold with only a slight loss).
they seem to have things better sorted than many other cycle sites that i monitor.
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Ferrit is awesome. Right now, the are selling the iPod touch 2nd gen 32GB for $583.20 (usually worth $659). Thats a saving of about $80 and this is the cheapest price for a brand new iPod touch 2nd gen 32GB in the whole of NZ at the moment. It has always shown me a lower price than other stores especially for electronic items.
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It’s a pity that Ferrit’s out of business because it puts a negative slant on the success of e-commerce and e-business in this country.
Figures from the OECD show that New Zealand and Australia have a healthy B2C e-commerce spending per-capita.
I have had personal, insider experience of both 1-day and Ferrit. Both have ambitious e-commerce models, except that 1-day has a fabulous business model and a very user friendly, simple site, and Ferrit does not.
In our own e-commerce business, http://www.boomskateboarding.com, we have seen a growth of over 400% as consumers become more comfortable with online shopping.
Although Ferrit’s demise is something to lament for the industry as a whole, it is important to remember that there are success stories out there… and the old adage remains true… keep it simple and keep it real!
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I was left wondering how Telecom expected the site to draw customers and, you know, make money. Apparently the people running the show were still wondering the same thing.
Ferrit General Manager Ralph Brayham is using the currently trendy “Global Financial Crisis” excusology, claiming that the success of the site was dependent on a constant stream of new retailers signing up to expand the product range, and the current financial climate was scaring potential retailers off. A more cynical observer might say that their business model was fundamentally flawed, and that someone has finally realised this and pulled the plug.
Whatever Telecom’s motivations were, soon Ferrit will be just a ghost on the servers of the interwebs, but there’s one thing we can all be glad about; we don’t have to put up with those god-awful TV ads any more.
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