Tauranga software developer Karl Friend has come up with a new e-commerce platform designed to make creating an online shop easier for small businesses.
"We have created an easy-to-use platform that enables small-to-medium enterprises to establish a web presence that is easily administered by themselves," said Mr Friend, who runs the Friendly Web (www.fw.net.nz) web site company.
The platform had been branded Friendly Shops. Still in its start-up phase, the platform was already being used by local Tauranga businesses, including Payless Plastics and Easter HiFi, while Wrights Sports was setting up its online shop.
"Our aim is to provide a complete e-commerce system that, once established, does not require any outside interaction for it to be maintained, other than the changes applied by the SME itself," said Mr Friend.
Mr Friend got the idea from seeing a similar site in the US, but decided their model was more complicated than was needed in the local market, so rebuilt the concept from scratch.