Fake ferrit fur

September 7, 2006 1:45 AM

In New Zealand at Ferrit you can buy things online. It hasn't had the best press. But it doesn't do itself any favours either.
posted by Samuel Farrow (14 comments total)

Well, I've been underwhelmed by it. If you're online and buying, why not go on TradeMe (NZ's homegrown, very successful version of eBay) and look for a bargain?
posted by rob511 at 2:00 AM on September 7, 2006

Yeah it is funny the whole TadeMe/eBay comparison, because they both have two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce and cheese - but Ebay has a sesame seed bun and TradeMe's bun has no seeds on it.
posted by Samuel Farrow at 2:26 AM on September 7, 2006

That Herald article makes New Zealand look like deepest, Darkest Peru cicra 1902.

'Imagine, fellow Kiwis, the ability to purchase goods while sitting in front of your home computer. Sounds like something from a science-fiction novel, but it could be closer to reality than you'd expect.'

(It doesn't actually say that, but that's the gist.)

Don't you guys get Amazon, or whatever, over there?
posted by Keefa at 4:09 AM on September 7, 2006

NZ's really backwards when it comes to e-tailing. No Amazon (I get my stuff via the American one) and precious little else beyond TradeMe.
posted by Paragon at 4:26 AM on September 7, 2006

I'll have to tell the missus, Paragon. She's keen on moving to NZ someday. Wait 'til she finds she's going to have to go to real-life stores to buy things.
posted by Keefa at 4:36 AM on September 7, 2006

Online retailer Ferrit.co.nz seems to have won more publicity for paying off the owners of the web domain Ferrit.com, which hosted pornography

What kind of porn site calls itself "ferrit.com"? OTOH I don't really want to know.
posted by clevershark at 4:37 AM on September 7, 2006

I managed to lure my fiance here from the States, so it is possible!
posted by Paragon at 4:54 AM on September 7, 2006

NZ's really backwards when it comes to e-tailing.

I have a theory about this. In the US, mail order & catalogue selling has a long history; people are comfortable with it, and consumer laws acknowledge that. Here in the antipodes, not so much.

Have you ever seen a useful Australian or NZ corporate website? No, neither have I.
posted by Pinback at 5:13 AM on September 7, 2006

Online retailing here is backwards but size of population is a limiting factor too. It creates quite a barrier to entry.

In addition you have a single major bricks & mortar retailer that has such a dominant position in the market place due to it's relative buying power start-ups of any kind have trouble getting the scale needed to make the set up costs work. Sure they are 60-70% share in some categories.

Think NZ Walmart only twice the market share of Walmart in many categories !

Getting products to market here for retailers that verge on being a mainstream NZ e-tailer is a global juggling act based upon demand generated for products in other parts of the world.

Anyone has experienced real choice knows shopping online globally is the only way to go if you need something even semi niche-y here. That's one of the beauties of NZ though consumer culture really isn't as out of control as many other places.

Ferrit is very poor vs global online competition. I mean in a population of 4 million just how many people are going to spend their time writing a review of a toaster...

Their new ad campaign is good though.... if only there was an easy link to them on the site somewhere....sigh
posted by doogyrev at 6:42 AM on September 7, 2006

Have you ever seen a useful Australian or NZ corporate website? No, neither have I.

True. Having moved from Australia to the UK, I've tried several times to arrange gifts for people in Oz by having them sent from local shops with a web presence. I wasn't expecting Amazon but it's been a dispiriting experience:

* Mail order music and books are thin pickings. In their meagre catalogues I couldn't find anything I'd want to send anyone.

* I ordered my parents a clock with multiple time zones (to discourage those after midnite calls) from Dick Smith. It took nearly three months to arrive.

* One Xmas I ordered them a Christmas hamper, from a store that was physically about 10 miles from their home. It arrived in mid-January.

I suspect it does have something to do with the population size, distribution and no tradition of mail-order. In any event, I've taken to sending stuff from Amazon.co.uk. It's better priced and arrives faster.
posted by outlier at 8:40 AM on September 7, 2006

Fake ferrit fur

Is ferret intentionally misspelled in the headline here?

BTW, I did not know they were a variety of polecat:

noun: domesticated albino variety of the European polecat bred for hunting rats and rabbits

posted by dno at 8:57 AM on September 7, 2006

The website is called Ferrit (first link). The thirs link is about how the clever people behind ferrits's mar/comms, in an effort to drive sales wrote fake consumer reviews of products such as

“This toaster is so retro and really cool. The timer function allows you to cook your toast to perfection, and the little red switch is a reminder that the toaster is actually on (good for those mornings when you don’t check the power point and wonder why your toast is taking ages to cook).”

and expected no one to notice.

This is also the first time to my knowledge that something like this has broken on a NZ blog - baby steps, but steps.
posted by Samuel Farrow at 11:56 AM on September 7, 2006

What pisses me off most about NZ e-tailing is that I can't get electronics imported from Amazon ;-) I have to get my sister in New Haven to on-ship them. Books are fine, they arrive in under a week.

I think Ferrit are trying to close that gap before/in-case Amazon ever open up shipping, but the key issue is that for Ferrit prices I can get something the same off Trademe (or even imported via eBay), including shipping, for about 75% of the price.
posted by pivotal at 2:15 PM on September 7, 2006

Ferrit's not even a vendor -- it's a front end to other vendors' catalogues and sites. It's a POS site which nobody is using. All this publicity won't be hurting.
posted by John Shaft at 3:28 PM on September 7, 2006