NZ Post unveils one-stop research shop

Shoppers can browse the latest catalogue deals from retailers through a website launched by NZ Post joint-venture Reachmedia.

The site, Lasoo.co.nz, lets visitors search under categories and retailers for product and service deals and, where the retailer has an online store, click through to make a purchase online.

Nine retailers have signed up to advertise through the site, including The Warehouse, Farmers and The Baby Factory, and Reachmedia chief executive Greg Radford says it expects to bring about 10 more on board in the next few months.

The site is intended to be a "pre-shopping research tool". "We know that 50 per cent of consumers are conducting some form of pre-purchase research online before going into a bricks and mortar retailer. Our primary focus is to drive traffic or drive people towards bricks and mortar stores."

Reachmedia has an Australian version of the site, which has been operating for 2 1/2 years and averages more than one million unique visits per month, he says.

Visitors can set up a profile and create wishlists, reminder alerts for special offers, and share product deals with their Facebook friends through a Facebook plug-in.

To set up a profile users need to supply their birth date, address and gender.

Mr Radford says Reachmedia does not share any personal information and has no plans to share broad demographic data with retailers, but can provide location-specific offers to members.

Retailers pay a set-up fee to join the site plus a fee based on the level of interaction visitors have with their products on the site.

Stefan Korn, director of Webfund – an incubator for web start-ups – and e-commerce analyst, says the site will be difficult to make a go of in New Zealand. It will need to charge retailers a low "cost per 1000 impressions" rate to get their buy-in, he says. "So they will need huge traffic to make it work."

The site will appeal only to consumers if it can save them money.

"But the problem in New Zealand is there are only two or three or five outlets that have a given article so it's not like you can really shop around. The time it would take to make minimal savings is huge."

The site does have some interesting features for refining searches, he says. For example, browsers can use "sliders" to tweak search results without having to go back to the search box. "That is definitely an interesting area and strategically that would be a great place for them to go."

The Australian site has about 250 retailers on board and a much wider product range, he says. NZ Post owns 50 per cent of Reachmedia. Australian-listed marketing firm Salmat owns the other half.

- © Fairfax NZ News