Australia Post has moved to bolster its small business offering by launching three partnerships to help small businesses with a number of core functions.
The organisation has partnered with ad specialists Tiger Pistol to create Social AdMate, aimed at helping small businesses create and manage social media advertising campaigns; it has partnered with Spawnit to create Brandwrapped, allowing businesses to create custom packaging for parcels; and with Workfast to give businesses access to temporary workers on-demand.
Rebecca Burrows, general manager of Small Business at Australia Post, said easy access to expert assistance can provide significant impact for SMBs.
“So we’re working with innovative small business partners to design new services that help entrepreneurs grow their business without losing focus on what’s most important to them,” he said.
“By being able to cocreate new services with innovators, we hope to remove barriers to a range of expert services and see our small business community thrive.”
With a basic package starting at $265 per month, a Social AdMate subscription will give businesses access to a dedicated account manager to help them run a campaign.
BrandWrapped, meanwhile, allows businesses to create personalised boxes, satchels, and other branded ‘extras’ such as ribbon, tape, labels, and wrapping paper, with Australia Post promising “low minimum print runs”.
Ian Douglas, CEO of Spawnit, said, “With more items being purchased online, packaging is a critical branding tool, particularly for small business. Through our partnership with Australia Post, BrandWrapped gives small businesses access to design their own beautiful eye-catching packaging and accessories that customers will love and remember.”
To round out the offerings, the Workfast service will give businesses access to a pool of job-ready workers, with all administration – including payroll, insurance, tax, and superannuation – managed by Workfast.
Founded in 2016 by Tim Nieuwenhuis, online temp agency Workfast was created out of a need Nieuwenhuis saw running his previous businesses, including ecommerce platforms Dugg.com.au and Zupply.
“We have several businesses and were always needing supplemental staff to fill positions due to annual leave, sickness or people leaving the company. Often these positions don’t get filled and this puts added stress on the other employees, which have to take on extra work,” he told Startup Daily.
The focus on ecommerce is an important one for Australia Post, with the organisation’s recently released earnings report on the second half of 2017 revealing a 10 percent fall in addressed letter volumes would have been even sharper if it were not for the postal survey on same-sex marriage, which created a revenue surge of $26.3 million.
Revenue for the business overall increased three percent to $3.6 billion, with an eight percent increase in parcel volumes.
Image: Christine Holgate. Source: Gourmet Traveller.
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