The Online Retailers Pledging to Work Together to Reach 1 Million Customers

The last three months of the retail calendar are filled with a number of pre-Christmas sale events, including Click Frenzy, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But, as discounting pressure becomes more prevalent among Australian retailers, and SMBs struggle to keep up, Hunting for George’s Marketing Manager, Jonno Rodd, set out to discover a different way for independent retailers to get the boost in traffic and revenue they need, minus the reduced margins.

“There is always a lot of sale messaging during this time of year and I wanted to change the focus. I wanted to create a campaign that was free to be involved, mutually beneficial and easy to execute,” Rodd says.

Flora & Fauna participates in Shop Independent promotion.

From here, ‘Shop Independent’ was born. The campaign involves nine local Aussie retailers that have banded together to encourage consumers to shop independent, with Birdsnest, FitMyCar, TinyMe, Edible Blooms, Flora & Fauna, Mountain Bikes Direct and Wild Earth all participating in the promotion.

“As you may know, Hunting for George is a proudly independent Australian owned and run business,” the business says on its main campaign page. “We rely heavily on the support of our customers and our community. This year we wanted to spotlight a few of our favourite Australian Independent brands that we love and who we’ll be shopping with this Christmas. “When you’re choosing where to shop this year (and every year) we encourage you to support local and independent businesses – where every single order is valued and makes a difference.  A big thank you for your continued support, we would not be here without you!”

The campaign launched off the back of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, at a time when online retailers often see a short slump in traffic and conversions post-sale and has been marketed across the Hunting for George website, as well as a number of social media platforms. As part of the campaign, each of the participating retailers speaks about which independent brand they will be shopping with this Christmas, and why.

Birdsnest’s Shop Independent EDM.

“If there’s one thing I love more than plants and flowers…it’s chocolate. Here I can get both,” Hunting for George’s Co-Founder, Lucy Glade-Wright said in her post saying she’ll be shopping with Edible Blooms.

According to Rodd, the positivity around the campaign and overall support from consumers and retailers alike has been overwhelming.

“We have had new customers on live chat all this week just browsing and reaching out to us to say they are inspired and love all the products,” Rodd says. “Although too early to attribute ROI specific to the campaign, it has been a great brand alignment and awareness opportunity between some of the most respected independent e-commerce businesses in Australia.”

Hunting for George wanted to encourage consumers to shop local.

As the first retailer to join the campaign, Flora & Fauna’s Founder and CEO, Julie Mathers says the promotion is a great way for businesses to work together to reach their individual holiday goals.

“We saw this campaign as a great way for independent retailers to lift up other retailers,” she says. “It’s a very competitive industry, so it is incredibly refreshing for us to be able to partner with like-minded businesses and all credit to Hunting for George for coming up with the idea and making this happen. When independent businesses come together powerful things can happen which is what we love. It’s a David and Goliath moment!”

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