Domain Pain – Part 1 of a 4 Part series in which we asked #nzentrepreneur readers to share their challenges and lessons in the important process of choosing and securing their business domain names.
As the founder of Buy Kiwi, an eCommerce platform built for New Zealand-owned businesses, Jamie Farmer has helped plenty of Kiwi businesses sell their products and services to a local, national and global market. He’s also seen many experience issues when setting up their website domains, where it’s not always straightforward securing the right one for their business.
“New Zealand is quite relaxed when it comes to domains, as all you need to buy a ‘.co.nz’ address is a credit card and email address – whereas in Australia, to get a ‘.com.au’ you need to provide a registered APN number,” he says.
“What’s more, a lot of the ‘.co.nz’ domains are actually owned by overseas providers, so this may be a sticking point for someone thinking they are getting something 100 percent New Zealand-based. This is especially important to consider where brand and trust are concerned,” explains Farmer.
It is something he discovered first hand when setting up the Buy Kiwi online marketplace. A ‘.co.nz’ domain was used, as it was available and Farmer wasn’t aware of other providers. However, after the owner of .kiwi approached him while he was developing the Buy Kiwi seller support website, he was able to create something far more brand-specific.
“Because of the .kiwi domain, we are able to direct sellers to buy.kiwi, which is ideal for our business. It fits our story, and the message we’re getting across to those who use our services.”
Farmer says as an established company, they got lucky. As he has worked with various businesses over the years, several have put time and money into creating a name and brand only to discover the matching domain is already in use, or there is an organisation with a very similar name. This can make things quite confusing for the end consumer.
“Our advantage was that because I had helped others set up previously, I knew what we could be up against. When you’re brainstorming your brand, you need to constantly be checking domains for availability,” Farmer advises.
“I think many people try to be really tricky and creative when it comes to this process – but for me, simple is best. You want your target market to know exactly what you do, without any confusion.”
Farmer also needed to tread carefully around using the term ‘kiwi’ in the business name, as the search terms ‘kiwi’ and ‘kiwifruit’ are often used interchangeably on Google, which could have got in the way of good SEO rankings. But with the right application, it was only three months before the number one spot was reached – and today he’s happy to be a part of a growing number of New Zealand organisations using the .kiwi domain.
“I think there’s real value in having a website using .kiwi. It means a lot more to those organisations wanting to be authentic and trustworthy. And because the ‘.co.nz’ domain can be purchased by anyone, anywhere, it opens up those domains to more scammers, or overseas businesses wanting to take advantage of everyday Kiwis.”
Passionate about Kiwis buying from Kiwis, Farmer and Buy Kiwi offer a range of services to New Zealand-based businesses to help them grow profit and market share. And, after only launching in 2023, there are already 50,000 products and services proudly being sold on buykiwi.co.nz.
Farmer says their focus is now on getting more businesses featured, as well as helping their customers to set up successful online e-commerce stores, manage cost pricing, shipping, 3PL (third-party logistics), marketing, and much more.
“I did a lot of work with the regional business partner network through Covid, and there was data to show 80 percent of SMEs were struggling with e commerce and marketing. That’s because they often have to do everything themselves – or they try to,” says Farmer.
“What’s more, setting up a well-integrated ecommerce business can be complicated, especially when it comes to the right technology solutions and the other rules and regulations you have to contend with – like anti-money laundering, for example. So, we’re always on hand to advise on these various processes.”
Farmer’s final piece of advice to emerging business owners?
“No matter what, make sure you look after the registration and always remain the owner of your website domain. If anyone needs access to it – like your web designer – only give them admin level controls. Things like the registration lapsing, or your web design company disappearing, can cause a myriad of problems.”
Story by Erin Harrison
Read Domain Pain Part 2 of this series
