Launch of industry initiative Driving Business Online
If you live in regional New South Wales (NSW), keep your eyes open for the big blue Driving Business Online Bus which may be visiting your town soon as part of the Driving Business Online Road Show. Driving Business Online is an initiative of Pay Pal Australia (supported by a number of industry partners) that aims to help small business get online. The Driving Business Online Road Show is designed to provide rural and regional small businesses with knowledge and tools that will help them achieve success online.
As well as the road show, the Driving Business Online initiative includes a website that offers lots of resources in relation to making a successful transition to the digital economy.
‘Operating online is no longer an option for Australian retailers and service providers, but an absolute necessity to gain the momentum they need to stay competitive in today’s changing consumer landscape’ according to PayPal Australia Managing Director Frerk-Malte Feller, who added that ‘over 8 million Australian consumers now use the internet to make purchases’. That does not even include the potential market that exists overseas.
Australia Retailers Association Executive Director Russell Zimmerman agrees with this, stating that ‘making the move online is no longer just the domain of forward-thinking businesses, it is a key element of business success.’
The Australia Retailers Association is just one of the partners supporting PayPal in the Driving Business Online initiative. Other supporting partners include Australia Post, Optus, Symantec, MYOB, Powerfront, and eBay.
On a typically chilly Canberra winter morning last week, the Minister for the Department of Broadband, Communication and Digital, Stephen Conroy, took a tour of the Driving Business Online Bus before opening the proceedings at the Driving Business Online Road Show launch event.
One of the key goals of the National Digital Economy Strategy is for Australia to rank by 2020 in the top five OECD countries in terms of businesses and not-for- profit organisations pursing online opportunities.
This is an important goal to achieve because, as Stephen Conroy, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy explained to Australian businesses at the Driving Business Online Road Show launch ‘if you are not online then, the truth is to many people you do not exist’.
The first stop for the Driving Business Online Road Show was Armidale, the first mainland site to go live with the NBN. From there the road show is scheduled to visit another 14 towns across NSW, including Bathurst, Mudgee, Dubbo, Muswellbrook, Kiama, Bega, Albury, Wagga Wagga, and Orange. The road show will also be making a pit stop at the COSBOA National Small Business Summit at the end of July.
There will be a Driving Business Online session held in the town hall of each town, where the road show team will be providing local SMEs with information about the digital economy. Local businesses will also have the opportunity to book one-on-one consultations with e-commerce experts aboard the bus.
The Driving Business Online website has information covering a range of topics related to doing business online. While the primary focus of the website is online sales, with tips on payments, logistics and how to improve sales offered, the website also provides information on other facets of e-business, such as marketing, social media and mobile technologies. The Driving Business Online website also includes case studies of SMEs that made the move online and have achieved positive outcomes from engaging in the digital economy.
To coincide with the start of the Driving Business Online Road Show, DealsDirect has posted a video on YouTube about their journey as an online business.
You can see more videos about the experiences of DealsDirect and other Australian businesses on the digitalbusiness.gov.au website. The digitalbusiness.gov.au website also includes plenty of additional information about what you need to make the transition online, from website content and online marketing to online payments and data security.
So have you moved your business online? What have been the challenges and successes? And if the Driving Business Online Road Show is going to be pulling up in your town, what do you plan to ask their e-commerce experts?
By Natalie, DBCDE
