Ecommerce as Covid antidote during lockdown

‘‘They generated a conversation and then analysed the content of that conversation to see what people are saying,’’ Dr Parackal said.

‘‘From there we can come up with very specific customeroriented strategy that is meeting the customers’ needs.’’

They had the data to do the next campaign or promotion — in a better targeted way — to its customer base.

Students: Parth Juneja, Benisha Senadheera, Mary Blythe, Greta Morrison.

The New Athenaeum Theatre

The New Athenaeum Theatre they had no online presence at all before the project.

‘‘They didn’t have anyone who knew them,’’ Dr Parackal said.

‘‘We wanted to increase their signup to their newsletter.’’

They ended up getting about 75 people to sign up to their newsletter.

‘‘For a company like that 75 is a big number.

‘‘If you look at that community that is going to revolve around the 75 people who have signed up, that is quite a sufficient target market for them to develop their own identity in the market.’’

Now it would be about communicating with those people who signed up to the newsletter, he said.

Students: Ivanna Matheson, Marina Urquhart, Kartik Kapoor, Shailzo Malik.

Urbn Vino

The main goal the students had for winemaker Brendan Seal’s Urbn Vino company was to increase traffic on platforms Facebook and Google.

Over a threeweek period in April and May the students eventually consolidated their ads to Facebook with attentiongrabbing pictures and a focus on a ‘‘loved local brand’’ in their posts.

They recommended offering a ‘‘click and collect’’ option for customers and collaborating with locally owned restaurant and neighbour in the Terminus building, Moiety.

Mr Seal said his main goal was to replace lost sales from the closed Otago Farmers Market and he was impressed with the students ‘‘great’’ marketing campaign.

‘‘I knew advertising was low and the return was relatively high and that’s great.

‘‘Well done,’’ he said to the students.

Students: Alexander AuldBeverley, Lucy King, Henry Gibbs, Sophie Martin.

Pavement

The students wanted to promote Pavement’s online store and to convert views into sales.

‘‘It’s a lot easier to say than to actually do,’’ student Matthew Wilson said.

They went for a Google ads campaign focusing on key brands, skateboards, shoes and winter hoodies.

They also created a 10% discount — with a code given out on social media — for purchases through Pavement’s online store to help push conversions.

One of their successes was the store’s ability to sell to customers in places as distant as Wellington and Auckland.

Pavement owner Craig Strong thanked the students for their recommendations and said Covid19 had delivered a shocking new normal for them.

He said he and his partner, Evie Forno, now had to man the store largely by themselves and would find it hard to find time to focus on their online strategy.

But, there had been a boon for skateboards — ‘‘the whole skate thing’s still going really well’’.

Usually skateboard sales were on the way down after summer but Mr Strong and other skateboard sellers were selling more than they ever had.

Students: Matthew Wilson, Ciara Gyde, Reece Raulet,

Taine Box.

Green Island Mower Centre

The company recently transitioned to abandoning its walkin store and selling parts online only, but not because of Covid19.

It was a fundamental change to the business, which gave the students an interesting challenge.

The students focused on a Google ads campaign on words such as ‘‘lawnmowers’’ and ‘‘rideon parts’’.

They soon found that aligning advertisements for Green Island Mower Centre with searches for lawnmower parts on Google was most effective.

The students said there was a clear traffic increase during their campaign.

One in 70 customers made a purchase and 63% of website visitors left immediately —something they said could be because of the design of the website.

They recommended streamlining the website with the branding of the business, such as by informing customers they sold only parts. The website had information about a shop and service and those should be removed to avoid confusion, they said.

Students: Lily Bryden, Junjie Lu, Henry Hawke, Luyi Yang, Nike Curran.