Local developer lets business open online shop

Karl Friend developed the new platform

Tauranga software developer Karl Friend has come up with a new e-commerce platform designed to make creating an online shop easier for small businesses.

"We have created an easy-to-use platform that enables small-to-medium enterprises to establish a web presence that is easily administered by themselves," said Mr Friend, who runs the Friendly Web (www.fw.net.nz) web site company.

The platform had been branded Friendly Shops. Still in its start-up phase, the platform was already being used by local Tauranga businesses, including Payless Plastics and Easter HiFi, while Wrights Sports was setting up its online shop.

"Our aim is to provide a complete e-commerce system that, once established, does not require any outside interaction for it to be maintained, other than the changes applied by the SME itself," said Mr Friend.

Mr Friend got the idea from seeing a similar site in the US, but decided their model was more complicated than was needed in the local market, so rebuilt the concept from scratch.

"In terms of business, New Zealand is an SME country," he said. "A lot of people run their business out of home so they want a very cheap e-commerce site where they can manage everything."

Mr Friend said that users of Friendly Shops could add and modify their products online, add and modify all of the text, photos and colours, and integrate with Facebook. The system also allowed immediate integration with a Paypal payments system and could easily be adapted for credit cards.

"Gone is the necessity for constant interaction with the website builder/ administrator to enable the business owner to keep their site current and relevant," he said. "Also gone are the ever-increasing costs of involving another party to carry out tasks that we have systemised to such an extent that the business owner can do them themselves."

Mr Friend was currently funding development of the Friendly Shops himself and is keen to retain control of the business rather than seek external start-up funding.

"I believe the platform has great potential," he said.