New Zealand does Online Shopping Too!

Here is an article about online shopping from New Zealand (a VERY cool country).

Media giants slug it out over NZ online shopping


By: Ken Lewis

Competition over your online shopping dollar is hotting up with news that ACP Media and APN have joined forces in an effort to tackle Fairfax's online auction giant TradeMe.

The internet arm of The New Zealand Herald's owner, Tony O'Reilly's APN News and Media, has taken a 50 per cent stake in free classified site sellmefree.co.nz, which was created by ACP Media. ACP is New Zealand's leading magazine publisher and is owned by Aussie media prodigy, James Packer.

Sellmefree.co.nz has been quietly building a regular user base since its launch in August 2005 and claims to have published nearly a million free private seller ads online with over 300,000 member accounts now registered.

According to Nielsen/NetRatings, sellmefree.co.nz ranked as the seventh most popular New Zealand Shopping site in the Christmas month of December, recording 49,700 unique browsers. Trademe.co.nz, the country's most popular shopping website, recorded 2.8 million uniques for the same period.

In a joint media release, the ACP and APN said they believed that free, live and multi-media rich trading environments will be an important part of the future of buying and selling general merchandise.

"The proposition for private sellers expecting to sell general goods for free with photos and videos, and for buyers to be able to buy right now is clearly gaining ground," said Heith Mackay-Cruise, chief executive officer of ACP Media.

The release said that immediate benefits of the partnership would be: accelerated development of the product offering, including a free auction service and enhanced multi-media and live functions; a significant investment in marketing; and a major increase in private listing content from print assets in key population centres.

And it seems the concept will not be restricted to New Zealand. A web page called Sellmefree.com.au and registered to A & R Enterprises Pty Ltd Australia is now live, although it only has the words "Coming soon..." displayed.

Article Source

eHalfOff.com is an online shopping store that specializes in customers' discount shopping experience.