Virtual shopping venture helping Kaikoura

Shop Kaikoura allows users to book personal shoppers to browse the town's stores on their behalf. Photo / Facebook

A virtual shopping service to help Kaikoura's quake-hit retailers is flourishing as more and more Kiwis choose to put their Christmas dollars to a good cause.

Shop Kaikoura allows users to book a personal shopper who will browse the town's stores on their behalf, sharing the experience on a live video stream or through photos.

The venture is the brainchild of tech executive and experimental quantum physicist Ina Kinski, who was blown away by the level of interest.

Not only were retailers directly benefiting, but staff from the accommodation and tourism sector, who currently have little or no income, were able to sign up to become personal shoppers. Retailers could then choose to pay them a commission on items purchased.

"Which is of course right because they're getting business that they wouldn't otherwise get. It also motivates you as a shopper to do a great job because it's in your interest that some money gets spent."

Kinski said the spend was generally large - there had been a few purchases of several hundred dollars worth of merino clothing, while one company had bought all 27 of its secret santa presents through the service.

"People don't tend to do it for the one paua shell, I've been surprised by how much people have been prepared to spend."

So far 11 personal shoppers had signed up and more than 30 virtual shopping trips had been booked, although Kinski said some were being arranged through retailers directly.

"They pick whether they want to go for half an hour or an hour, we even had one person who wanted a three hour trip because they wanted to see everything.

"We've then got photos and a little profile of our shoppers and they can pick who they like. The shoppers can manage their own availability and work around their timetable."

To purchase items the phone is handed over to retailer, with Shop Kaikoura having nothing to do with the end transaction. Kinski, a Kaikoura resident, came up with the idea after offering to do a friend's Christmas shopping in the town via Skype.

There's still enough time to do your corporate secret santa shopping here so if people have Christmas parties in the corporate world and they're doing a little gift exchanges anyway, why not get all your $10, $15 gifts from Kaikoura?

"It went really well and then I thought why not scale this up? The whole country could just as easily do this," she said.

"From a business point of view I love working on something where there's no downside. With most projects we do there's always a big evaluation about is this worth it? Should we invest this money? How many would we have to sell to make it count? With this, even if it had all fallen apart after the one Lavender Farm purchase of $100 it would have been worth it."

She hoped the scheme was helping to inject some much-needed money, and hope, into the community.

"There's still enough time to do your corporate secret santa shopping here so if people have Christmas parties in the corporate world and they're doing a little gift exchanges anyway, why not get all your $10, $15 gifts from Kaikoura?"

Want to get your Christmas pressies from Kaikoura? Visit www.shopkaikoura.co.nz.