PRESS RELEASE - 21 March 2011

Smallfish offers free online stores to Canterbury retailers affected by the earthquake

The Canterbury earthquake has had a devastating effect on local retailers: swathes of the Christchurch CBD are still cut off and scores of small businesses have been decimated by the quake and its after effects. Smallfish, whose product makes it easy to build and run an online store, are offering their product for free to 100 shops that cannot continue trading because their physical store is damaged or inaccessible because of the earthquake. The offer includes 250 products for each store and the shops will remain free for 12 months. There is no set up fee, no success fees, and hosting is included. Smallfish will also promote the stores on their site and encourage New Zealanders to buy from them.

Smallfish director Shane Bartle says: “This is the best way that a small New Zealand business like ours, that specialises in helping people to create an online store quickly and easily, can help. Canterbury shop owners will be able to get an ecommerce shop up and running in less than a day and continue to sell their merchandise. By encouraging people to buy the products online, maybe we can help keep these businesses open until they can move back in to their physical stores.”

If you are the owner of an affected Canterbury business and are interested in taking advantage of this offer, you can contact Smallfish at canterbury@smallfish.co.nz or visit them at www.smallfish.co.nz to learn more.

Media Contact
Shane Bartle
Smallfish Limited
shane@smallfish.co.nz
http://www.smallfish.co.nz