[billb]

Hi folks,

Should we be successful in moving to NZ, would there be any restriction in us continuing with our e-commerce website? (for those of you who want to take a peek, you'll find the address on my profile page, don't think I'm allowed to put it here though!)

We have operated the website successfully for a while now and we still sell on eBay with auction items and through our eBay shop, although we intend to wind down our operations on eBay completely by the end of the year (or sooner :laugh )

Obviously, there would be different criteria for operating one in NZ. For instance, we comply with the DSR regulations which wouldn't apply in NZ but would probably have an equivalent. It's a fully registered business with the Inland Revenue for tax purposes.

Would be most grateful if anyone has set up there own e-commerce website since arriving and could pass on any info they may have or whether there are any restrictions in a new immigrant operating one.

Many thanks in advance.

Bill

[neilw71]

Bill,

If I understand you correctly, you are asking if you can start a new company in NZ once you arrive. Yes is the answer

However, NZ is nowhere near as Internet friendly as the UK and buying online is a very small part of most Kiwi's life. If you intend to rely on income from selling online within NZ, then I would not be too hopeful!

As you probably already know, Ebay is not very active at all in NZ, but everyone uses TradeMe.co.nz.

Good Luck

Neil

[billb]

Hi Neil,

]....However, NZ is nowhere near as Internet friendly as the UK and buying online is a very small part of most Kiwi's life. If you intend to rely on income from selling online within NZ, then I would not be too hopeful!

As you probably already know, Ebay is not very active at all in NZ, but everyone uses TradeMe.co.nz.[/I]

Many thanks for your reply :nice1

No, we certainly would not be relying on income from our website to sustain us, it would be supplementary ;) . The majority of our sales are international anyway, mainly to the USA (our largest client base by far!)

We have visited the TradeMe site many times and have had a good laugh reading some of the questions posted by potential buyers, along with the sellers responses. There were a couple of great ones on there last year that went on for days, very hilarious!

Well, it's good to know that there would be no restrictions as such, but we would have to do some research regarding the NZ regs for selling on-line. The DSR regs here, for example, stipulate that we must allow customers to return their item (for any or even no reason) if they wish to do so, for a full refund, less postage costs (a cooling - off period, in effect.)

We assume there would be some equivalent of these regs in NZ.

Incidentally, we had a couple of sales last year on eBay to customers in NZ, one in Bombay Hills, the other in Tauranga!

Thanks once again Neil.

[eternalkiwi]

Online trading does not have specific laws in NZ, though there has been some policies developed and court cases on how to interpret general consumer and sales/trading laws for the online environment.

The relevant laws in NZ for sale of goods and trading would be the Fair Trading Act & Consumers Guarantees Act.

As the names suggest, NZ has basic limits on how business advertise and trade and what quality people can expect from goods they buy, e.g fit for purpose.

So basically if you describe the products accurately and do not hide anything or create misleading impressions, you do not have to refund people.
Customers changing their mind is not a risk for NZ companies, though some companies do offer to refund or exchange.

Establishing a company in NZ is also very straight forward and takes 1-2 days from start to finish (it is possible for same day registration) and can cost less than NZD$100.

Shawn