Ecommerce as Covid antidote
The need for businesses to be digital and have a way of operating in electronic commerce (known as ecommerce) came to the fore as people stayed home during Covid19 Alert Levels 4 and 3. Jacob McSweeny takes a look at those getting alongside local busine
BUSINESSES going online to sell their products must have a strategy guiding their activity and avoid throwing their eggs into one basket, a Dunedin marketing expert says.
And Dr Mathew Parackal from the University of Otago says business analytics — measuring the performance of a company’s online strategy — is going to become increasingly important to help businesses recover from a postCovid drop in revenue.
The course leader for the University of Otago’s digital marketing (MART466) course gets his students to help businesses every year with their ecommerce strategy.
This year their role became more relevant than it had ever been, as businesses shut down in lockdown and were severely restricted under the various alert levels.
‘‘Although they are wellestablished companies in the offline format . . . none of them are ready for the digital world as such,’’ Dr Parackal said.
The danger now in particular, Dr Parackal said, was that while there has been a spike in online activity, ‘‘the chances are it will just come down’’.
That is where a digital strategy comes in.
‘‘That is lacking in businesses in New Zealand . . . they are not using strategy to drive it in the way they want.
‘‘That’s a major gap and that’s something businesses
have to open their minds and eyes to so that whatever infrastructure they are setting up online will meet the objectives they have for themselves.’’
A lot of agencies and companies would promote their platforms for marketing on, but using one of them was only a tactic and not a strategy, Dr Parackal said.
He said it was a trap business owners would often fall into — they would get convinced to throw all of their digital marketing budget into just Google adwords, for example.
‘‘It’s equivalent to this —if you drop flyers all around the block, that’s not marketing. It’s one element of the wider marketing activity.
‘‘Yes [Google adwords] has a powerful reach . . . but it’s like putting all your eggs into one basket. It may bring you your ultimate cash flow but whether it is meeting your overarching objective of developing a relationship with customers, of community — it may not be satisfied.’’
Measuring how the business tracked online was going to become crucial, too.
Analytics professionals were hard to find though, and it required expertise and training.
‘‘There isn’t enough capable expertise around.
‘‘As businesses and companies become aware of it they will start embracing it. But if they don’t see the value of it and because it’s not their area of expertise they will try to live without it.
‘‘But as soon as — after a project like this —the company realises the value of analytics they will outsource the expertise so they have it.’’
Or they will learn to do it themselves, he said.
The project
The students were separated into groups of three or four and designated a local business.
They were: winemaker Urbn
Vino, streetwear retail store Pavement, organic food store Taste Nature, the New Athenaeum Theatre and Green Island Mower Centre.
‘‘The clients came round in terms of realising the need for digital . . . because they were all online [during Covid19 Alert Levels 4 and 3] and they had to get things going.’’
The students went ‘‘fullthrottle’’ into it. They met their clients, found out what their problem was and came up with a plan, which they carried out.
They reported back to clients what they achieved on Wednesday.
Taste Nature
The students working on Taste Nature wanted to develop conversation with clients on Facebook. They would ask openended questions in Facebook posts to appeal to their target market.
Their goal was teaching the importance of organic products and not creating waste — to help customers understand why prices might be higher than at a supermarket.
DUNEDIN cancer diagnostic company Pacific Edge has reported an aftertax net loss of $18.9 million for the year ended March 31.
That followed the previous year’s $17.9 million loss. Operating expenses were up 5% on the previous year to $24.1 million, which was primarily due to the foreign exchange impact of a weaker NZD compared to USD, the company said in an update to markets.
The board and management continued to carefully manage resources and achieving a cashflow breakeven position remained a priority, it said.
Highlights for the period included the publication of three additional peer reviewed papers in support of its Cx bladder cancer diagnostic tests; inclusion in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines in the US; increased adoption and commercial use by DHBs in New Zealand, and growing recognition and adoption by urologists in the US and New Zealand.
Total laboratory throughput increased 7% to 16,861 tests and 81% of those tests were commercial tests.
Operating revenue from test sales was $4.4 million, up 14% on the previous comparative period, and cash receipts from customers were up 19% year on year. US operating revenue increased 15% on pcp and accounted for 86% of group operating revenue in FY20.
The US remained the company’s largest market, providing 79% of total laboratory throughput during the year.
While the New Zealand market was small relative to the US, New Zealand’s public healthcare providers continued to lead the global adoption of Cxbladder.
Continuing progress was being made in southeast Asia and clinical trials in Singapore were nearing completion.
The published results from those would form the basis for a proposed Singaporewide commercial rollout.
In Australia, Pacific Edge was replicating its New Zealandproven sales and marketing model to drive sales growth.
The company remained focused on achieving its key strategic objectives and commercial momentum was increasing.
Operating cashflow was expected to improve further, while operating expenses would be maintained at current levels or lower.
Pacific Edge continued to operate as an essential business during the Covid19 restrictions in both New Zealand and the US.
While fourthquarter laboratory throughput remained strong, the negative impact from the stayathome restrictions was felt in the first half of April 2020, as urologists balanced the conflicting demands of Covid19 restrictions and managing atrisk patients.
The pandemic had highlighted the need for novel ways to detect cancer early and guide treatment. Following the rapid increased use of telehealth in the US during this time, Pacific Edge expected teleconsultations to become more common.