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Scoop
14 hours ago
- Business
- Scoop
Onecheq Rises As An All-in-One Online Retailer In New Zealand
As New Zealand's e-commerce economy continues to set new records, local online retailer Onecheq is emerging as a significant force, steadily expanding its product categories to meet the evolving needs of Kiwi shoppers. The growth of the platform reflects a larger trend in the national retail landscape. According to NZ Post's latest Full Download report, online consumer spending reached $7.2 billion in 2024, with over 70 million parcels delivered nationwide. Among the top-performing sectors were electronics, home improvement and health products, all categories in which Onecheq has recently expanded. Onecheq started as a tech-focused retailer but now carries an extensive inventory that spans electronics, tools, homeware, health and beauty, outdoor gear and more. 'We're seeing strong demand from Kiwis who want the convenience of a single online destination for both high-quality products and local service,' says Kushal, spokesperson for Onecheq. 'Whether it's a smartwatch, a power drill, or skincare tools, people expect to get what they need quickly, with full transparency and support.' E-Commerce Trends Driving Onecheq's Growth Onecheq's range expansion is closely aligned with the broader trends transforming New Zealand's retail sector. According to Stats NZ (2024), 42% of Kiwi households now shop online for non-grocery goods, a significant rise from 32% in 2022. This shift reflects a growing demand for convenience, variety, and speed in the online shopping experience. Consumers are increasingly prioritising product diversity and local availability, along with clear return policies, GST-inclusive pricing and the reassurance of a New Zealand-based retail platform. In a market where shoppers are often forced to choose between slow international delivery or a limited domestic range, Onecheq is stepping in to fill that gap, offering a wide selection of products with the reliability and responsiveness that New Zealanders expect. 'Customers are looking for trusted, local alternatives to the global giants,' Kushal says. 'They want faster delivery, clear product listings and New Zealand-based warranty protection. That's where we've focused our attention.' A Retail Platform Built for NZ Shoppers Founded in Auckland in 2020, Onecheq's platform now features products across multiple verticals, including: Consumer electronics such as smartphones, tablets, wearables and gaming consoles DIY tools including drills, rotary kits, workbenches and hand tools Home and lifestyle items such as air fryers, lighting, furniture, decor and storage Health and beauty devices like massage guns, grooming kits and hair styling tools Outdoor and fitness gear, including fishing accessories and camping equipment Toys, hobbies and craft supplies, including art tools and LEGO Apparel, pet accessories and more This wide product offering positions Onecheq not just as a tech store but as a genuine multi-category retail site that competes with traditional department stores, while leveraging the convenience of fast, digital shopping. Innovation Plans Aligned With Global E-Commerce Trends Looking ahead, Onecheq is actively exploring a range of innovations that align with emerging global trends in online retail. Among the initiatives under consideration are enhanced product recommendation systems that use shopper behaviour and purchase history to tailor the browsing experience, as well as AI-powered customer support tools designed to improve response times and deliver more personalised service. The company is also developing content-driven shopping experiences, including curated product collections and educational buying guides to help customers make more informed choices. In addition, Onecheq is investigating eco-conscious packaging and fulfilment solutions aimed at reducing its environmental footprint. While some of these developments are still in progress, they reflect Onecheq's clear commitment to evolving with customer expectations and building a smarter, more sustainable online shopping platform for New Zealanders. 'We're studying what leading international e-commerce platforms are doing well, and finding ways to adapt those strategies for New Zealand,' Kushal adds. 'Our goal is to build something that feels world-class, but with a local heart.' Expanding Range Reflects Evolving Consumer Demand As online shopping habits in New Zealand continue to shift, Onecheq is adapting its product strategy to meet the changing expectations of modern consumers. Originally focused on consumer electronics, the retailer has significantly broadened its range to include DIY tools, homeware, lifestyle accessories, personal care devices and even pet supplies. This deliberate diversification allows Onecheq to better serve the growing number of shoppers who prefer to purchase across multiple categories from a single platform. 'We're constantly reviewing our catalogue to reflect what Kiwis are actually looking for,' says Kushal. 'The goal is to offer a curated but diverse range that lets customers find what they need, whether that's a set of headphones, a power tool, or a gift for their pet - all in one place.' By tracking demand trends and regularly updating its stock with relevant, seasonal and emerging products, Onecheq is positioning itself not just as a retailer, but as a responsive platform that evolves alongside its customer base. This agility has been central to the company's growth and continues to shape its expansion plans in 2025 and beyond. Why Onecheq Is Poised for Continued Growth With product categories expanding and customer satisfaction remaining a core priority, Onecheq is poised to grow its footprint even further in the coming years. The brand is already becoming a go-to name among shoppers looking for a trustworthy New Zealand-owned alternative to slow overseas sellers or impersonal mega-platforms. This type of local-first, all-in-one online retailer is proving to be exactly what the post-pandemic digital economy demands. With its combination of product variety, competitive pricing and a shopping experience tailored to Kiwi consumers, Onecheq is positioned to meet the needs of a growing segment of online shoppers. As the company continues to invest in service improvements and explore new innovations, its potential for further growth in New Zealand's evolving e-commerce landscape appears strong.
Scoop
3 days ago
- Business
- Scoop
Home Consents Down In The Month Of April 2025
There were 2,418 new homes consented in April 2025, down 17 percent compared with April 2024, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. 'The drop in number of new homes consented in April 2025 may have been impacted by the timing of Easter weekend and Anzac Day, with people potentially taking time off in between,' economic indicators spokesperson Michelle Feyen said. Of the 2,418 new homes consented, there were: 1,148 stand-alone houses consented (down 15 percent compared with April 2024) 1,270 multi-unit homes consented (down 19 percent). .............................
Scoop
5 days ago
- Business
- Scoop
Sheep And Beef Farmers Deliver Record Red Meat Returns
Press Release – New Zealand Government The global appetite for high-quality, natural protein is continuing to grow, driving strong prices for New Zealand lamb and beef. Minister of Agriculture New Zealand's sheep and beef farmers are delivering record-breaking red meat export sales and driving strong farmgate returns to the rural economy Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. 'March was a standout month for our red meat exporters, with a record $1.26 billion in export sales—a 34 per cent increase on March last year. First quarter exports also hit $3.28 billion, up 28 per cent from last year. This is great news for farmers, processors, and rural communities across New Zealand,' Mr McClay says. The global appetite for high-quality, natural protein is continuing to grow, driving strong prices for New Zealand lamb and beef. 'This reflects a deeper, longer-term shift in global consumer behaviour. People everywhere are turning to clean, high-quality, safe and sustainable animal protein, and New Zealand is delivering,' Mr McClay says. Beef and Lamb New Zealand's February forecast projected red meat export revenue to achieve an additional $1.2 billion for the 2024/25 production year. That outlook is well on track, thanks to our farmers hard work and world leading production, with April Stats NZ data confirming an additional $1.1 billion or 5 per cent increase in red meat exports over the past year bringing the total value to $10.6 billion. The Government is doing its part to ensure farmers see more returns at the farm gate by restoring confidence, slashing red tape, and opening up new opportunities. Key actions to drive growth and keep Wellington out of farming include: Removed agriculture from the Emissions Trading Scheme Currently banning full farm-to-forest conversions Started the process of replacing the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management Moved to fundamentally reform the Resource Management Act Halted unworkable winter grazing, stock exclusion, and Significant Natural Area (SNA) rules Begun rebalancing Te Mana o te Wai to restore the rights of all water users Disbanded Labour's He Waka Eke Noa initiative Repealed the punitive Ute Tax Commenced an inquiry into rural banking Halted Labour's costly Freshwater Farm Plans Completed a number of Free Trade Agreements that offer farmers greater opportunity in new markets Removed $733 million in non-tariff trade barriers 'Our farmers are world leaders in producing high-quality, safe, sustainable, grass-fed meat. This Government backs them 100 per cent, and we'll keep cutting through the red tape so they can keep delivering for New Zealand,' Mr McClay says.
The Spinoff
6 days ago
- General
- The Spinoff
Is homemade butter worth it? Two methods, put to the test
With butter prices slipping through our fingers, we took matters into our own hands. Every day it feels like there's a new headline about Aotearoa's butter price blowout. With Stats NZ reporting a 65% price hike since February last year, a block of butter is slipping out of reach for many, with the rise unlikely to melt away anytime soon. People are lining up at Costco to bulk buy blocks of slightly cheaper butter, with one man even driving 750km to fill his van with the stuff. And it's putting pressure on cafes around the country, with some forced to hike their cheese scone price up to a whopping $8, and others resorting to buying butter from Australia. It got us thinking: would it be cheaper to make butter yourself at home? How hard can it really be? And will it taste just as good as Costco's finest? Alex Casey tried the shaking method My recipe for homemade butter came from The Stay at Home Chef, whose promise of 'a fun old-fashioned activity for kids' seemed achievable even for me, an adult who once let a whole unopened bag of frozen corn melt onto the sizzling hot element because I got distracted on my phone. The only prep required was picking up 300ml of fresh cream from Pak'nSave Riccarton for just $3.25, digging out an old jar from the garage, and washing the spider corpses out. As I watched the arachnid exoskeletons circle the drain, I felt a sense of old world charm seep in. There was no electricity or machinery needed here, and no fancy chemicals or additives apart from good old fashioned elbow grease. I diligently poured one cup of cream into the jar, twisted it shut, and began to shake with reckless abandon. Alas, within seconds of vigorous motion, I was splattered with cream (not accepting any blue humour at this time). With the jar safely secured with packing tape, I settled in again to listen to a 5.02 minute long voice note from a friend while doing my first round of shaking (the Stay at Home Chef promised 5-7 minutes). About 20 seconds in, my right arm started to ache and I had to swap to the left. This went on for a while, until I settled on using both hands and shaking from side to side like an excited trophy winner, and then back and forth in front of me like I was doing high speed netball passes. As the voice note finished, I was delighted to hear no more sloshing in the jar. Could it be that I had just made butter in half the time of the 'All Too Well' 10-minute version? I sliced through the sellotape feeling like Old Mother Hubbard, but was crestfallen to find nothing but whipped cream within. I ate a conciliatory teaspoon, and got back to work. The next voice note I shook my way through was eight minutes long (my friend is fine) and by the end of it I heard a satisfying 'THONK' inside the jar. The contents had separated into a thin white cloudy liquid housing what can only be described as a bright yellow brain within. I strained it all through the sieve and was delighted to find a near perfect sphere of butter waiting to be mooshed into a small bowl with a bit of salt and garnished with parsley. This is the 90s after all. I burnt a piece of Vogel's to a crisp and slathered it from coast to coast in my luxury hand shooketh butter. It was delicious, creamy, just like from the shop but possibly even better because of the delectable analog smugness. All in all, I got about 78 grams of butter from my 250mls of cream (minus the sleeve spill and the conciliatory teaspoon of cream) which means I'd be spending $20.80 to make my own 500g block (which is not the projected price until August). Daylight robbery you cry, but there is hidden value here. Consider the free arm workout, the free science extravaganza, free buttermilk, and free 50mls of leftover cream. The next morning I made two pancakes with the leftover buttermilk, served with leftover (jar whipped) cream, and of course my own melted homemade butter. It was a turducken of dairy products that had gone farm to plate, nose to tail, liquid to solid and all the way back again. A priceless bit of fun in a bleak ass world. Anna Rawhiti-Connell tried the KitchenAid method I set the task of making butter with my KitchenAid for myself, confident it would be easier than Alex's shaker method. Bridget Jones famously described married people as 'smug marrieds'. I am describing KitchenAid owners as smug KitchenAiders. When someone comments on something impressive you've made with a KitchenAid, you can't just take the compliment, you have to say you made it with a KitchenAid, but you're allowed to pretend you're saying that to highlight it's no big deal to make homemade pasta when you are aided by precision engineering. Those are the rules of KitchenAid club. KitchenAid's 'recipe' for butter is cheerfully titled ' Homemade Butter – Colour of the Year 2025 '. It's a) a Pantone-esque announcement about their colour of the year and b) a sales pitch for their cheerful and accidentally bleak-sounding colour range, described as a 'soft, energising butter yellow with a creamy satin finish'. Like butter, I guess? I woke up yesterday morning, my butter-making task on my list, and promptly handed half the job off to my husband by asking him to get some cream on his way back from the gym. 'Why?' he said 'Work' I replied. He nodded wearily, knowing it would be for some cockamamie experiment that my type A personality couldn't resist partaking in. I'd said I needed a 330ml bottle of MeadowFresh cream to match Alex's cream 'for science'. He wearily said there wasn't any and wearily put a 500ml bottle of Anchor cream in the fridge. The experiment has been corrupted and has already cost me $4.84 and a spousal favour backlog. I poured 330mls of cream into my KitchenAid bowl along with half a teaspoon of salt. One KitchenAid recipe I googled mentioned a 'whipping disc'. I don't have a whipping disc. I panicked for a brief second before returning to the first KitchenAid butter recipe I'd found the day before which just used the standard whipping attachment. I don't know why there are so many 'recipes' for something made of cream and centrifugal force. The recipe advised it would take 10-15 minutes for the butter fat solids to separate from the buttermilk. I'd half read a message from Alex the night before about how long it took her to make butter using just her arms and a jar and was immediately crestfallen because I thought she'd said seven minutes. I've just read her butter odyssey properly and my zest for life has returned. The KitchenAid recipe advised slowly dialling up the machine from one to turn-it-up-to-11, Vin Diesel speed. From cream to separated fat and buttermilk, it took eight minutes to get butter. I drained it in a sieve as per the instructions and rinsed it a few times with cold water to rid it of the last of the buttermilk. Voilá, le beurre! The magic of making something you have spent your life assuming required a gigantic industrial manufacturing process and the feeling of pretending you're sticking it to Big Dairy are enough to make the extremely dodgy economics of this endeavour worth it. I got 86 grams of butter from 330mls of cream. To make 500 grams of butter would have cost me $28.13, so it makes zero fiscal sense. I suspect the mixer approach, while faster, also wastes more cream by the time you lose the precious fats of our land to the bowl, the wall, your face, a spatula and a sieve. The butter was taste-tested by my colleagues yesterday, who praised it after spreading it on bread and putting that into a toasted sandwich press. I can confirm without the mask of a toastie, it tastes like butter, and I feel like a science wizard. A+++ would make it again if I won Lotto or owned a cow.
Scoop
6 days ago
- Business
- Scoop
Sheep And Beef Farmers Deliver Record Red Meat Returns
Minister of Agriculture New Zealand's sheep and beef farmers are delivering record-breaking red meat export sales and driving strong farmgate returns to the rural economy Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. 'March was a standout month for our red meat exporters, with a record $1.26 billion in export sales—a 34 per cent increase on March last year. First quarter exports also hit $3.28 billion, up 28 per cent from last year. This is great news for farmers, processors, and rural communities across New Zealand,' Mr McClay says. The global appetite for high-quality, natural protein is continuing to grow, driving strong prices for New Zealand lamb and beef. 'This reflects a deeper, longer-term shift in global consumer behaviour. People everywhere are turning to clean, high-quality, safe and sustainable animal protein, and New Zealand is delivering,' Mr McClay says. Beef and Lamb New Zealand's February forecast projected red meat export revenue to achieve an additional $1.2 billion for the 2024/25 production year. That outlook is well on track, thanks to our farmers hard work and world leading production, with April Stats NZ data confirming an additional $1.1 billion or 5 per cent increase in red meat exports over the past year bringing the total value to $10.6 billion. The Government is doing its part to ensure farmers see more returns at the farm gate by restoring confidence, slashing red tape, and opening up new opportunities. Key actions to drive growth and keep Wellington out of farming include: Removed agriculture from the Emissions Trading Scheme Currently banning full farm-to-forest conversions Started the process of replacing the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management Moved to fundamentally reform the Resource Management Act Halted unworkable winter grazing, stock exclusion, and Significant Natural Area (SNA) rules Begun rebalancing Te Mana o te Wai to restore the rights of all water users Disbanded Labour's He Waka Eke Noa initiative Repealed the punitive Ute Tax Commenced an inquiry into rural banking Halted Labour's costly Freshwater Farm Plans Completed a number of Free Trade Agreements that offer farmers greater opportunity in new markets Removed $733 million in non-tariff trade barriers 'Our farmers are world leaders in producing high-quality, safe, sustainable, grass-fed meat. This Government backs them 100 per cent, and we'll keep cutting through the red tape so they can keep delivering for New Zealand,' Mr McClay says.
