Buying Aussie a boost for local start-up

WHILE the story for many businesses in 2020 was pivoting to online, a young Torquay business found new avenues to market by heading in the other direction.

Summer Skin Australia cofounder Georgia Minear said the original hope for the twoyear-old business’ range of natural face and body skincare products was to be exclusive to their own website.

But a combination of the pandemic and the challenge of cracking into the giant health and beauty market forced Ms Minear and her Adelaidebased business partner Lil McAvaney to reconsider their options.

Ms Minear said sales went quiet in the early months of the pandemic last year.

“We are a small business and we didn’t have the money to pump into online marketing,” she said.

“We thought, ‘We have to explore some other options here, because … we need to be seen’.”

They successfully enlisted retailers in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia to take on the brand, and wholesaling created a new revenue stream in the second half of the year.

The company obtained further exposure for its Australian-made product when it was taken up by The

Iconic, and then new platform Buy Aussie Now also reached out in the middle of last year.

Officially launched by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on Friday, Buy Now is an online marketplace for Australianmade and owned products.

With a soft launch during the post-Christmas sales, 15,000 products are already on the platform, with Summer Skin Australia one of the

6500 registered businesses taking part.

Ms Minear welcomed the exposure the brand could potentially give small businesses such as Summer Skin Australia, which has its range of products made in Queensland.

She said people’s appreciation for Australianmade was one of the few good things to come out of the pandemic.

“Consumers are a lot more conscious these days about where their products are coming from and they are wanting to support local and they’re wanting to support Australian-made,” she said.

“We are in skincare, and I think people are a lot more conscious of what they are putting on their skin.”

Having launched the business with a body oil and body moisturising cream, Summer Skin Australia has since added a coffee body scrub and natural deodorant to the range.