Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • What the Actual
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times / Business

Bay online retail empire surfing wave of success

By Joseph Aldridge
Bay of Plenty Times·
15 Jul, 2013 04:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Owning five online stores isn't enough for Tauranga businessman Shane Loomb - he wants to sell the engines that power other people's online stores.

Mr Loomb is managing director of LeftBrain, a group of online stores including IQ Toys, Baby Universe, Gumboot, I Want That, and as of November last year, Pet Spot.

LeftBrain has a turnover of close to $6 million a year but Mr Loomb hopes that can grow to $25 million within the next five years.

The growth would include the purchase or development of more online stores for the LeftBrain group but would be driven by the sale of systems services for other online retailers, Mr Loomb said.

The company launched a beta version of its e-commerce software two months ago and was already hosting Tauranga company Fitness Fusion. LeftBrain was working with several other companies keen to use its online retail software.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The cloud-based software would allow online retailers to easily upload products, create deals and monitor visitor and sales numbers for as little as $10 a month.

Retailers with more products would pay more for the service - up to $100 a month for a site with thousands of products.

Mr Loomb said the online market was a big place and he was not afraid to sell the systems that had helped his business.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"We've been a gold miner, we understand how to gold mine so we're training up new gold miners, and provided they're not operating in our same patch it's not really a problem," he said.

"Why not look at it as a way to build the business, in fact if anything it will grow the business quicker than if we just continued adding a new website every couple of years."

In addition to selling its online expertise, LeftBrain was also offering to provide distribution services for online retail companies.

"Ultimately what we want to do is offer people the ability to focus on what matters to their business, which is really just sourcing new products and getting new customers, and we'll focus on the back-end stuff."

LeftBrain had maximised its warehouse capacity but would be looking for bigger premises if growth levels continued, he said.

Seventy-five per cent of LeftBrain products were sold in New Zealand, although Australia could become a bigger part of the company's market so long as tax laws did not change.

Mr Loomb said he was in two minds about Government plans to look for ways to charge GST on goods bought on foreign websites.

"We export to Australia quite a bit so if Australia brings in a similar thing it could be an issue for us, but the other thing is that as a New Zealand retailer it's going to make it not so attractive for people to go on to Amazon and buy from them so it will help strengthen us within the local market."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Business

Bay of Plenty Times

'Rapid rate': US demand grows for Kiwi beverage product

21 May 04:00 AM
Premium
Opinion

Opinion: US-China tariff truce sparks major market rebound

18 May 04:00 PM
Bay of Plenty Times

Kiwifruit and sustainable sportswear: A year of the NZ-EU trade deal

17 May 06:00 PM

The Hire A Hubby hero turning handyman stereotypes on their head

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Business

'Rapid rate': US demand grows for Kiwi beverage product

'Rapid rate': US demand grows for Kiwi beverage product

21 May 04:00 AM

Wai Mānuka launched in Citarella Gourmet Market's seven New York locations.

Premium
Opinion: US-China tariff truce sparks major market rebound

Opinion: US-China tariff truce sparks major market rebound

18 May 04:00 PM
Kiwifruit and sustainable sportswear: A year of the NZ-EU trade deal

Kiwifruit and sustainable sportswear: A year of the NZ-EU trade deal

17 May 06:00 PM
Little Big Markets a launchpad for thriving businesses

Little Big Markets a launchpad for thriving businesses

15 May 02:00 AM
Gold demand soars amid global turmoil
sponsored

Gold demand soars amid global turmoil

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP