Press Release: October 8th, 2008

Perweek helps to break online purchasing ‘glass-ceiling’.

Tauranga based online retailer Baby Universe is pleased to report a 30% increase in sales of high-ticket items over the past 12 months. This result is in contrast to the nationwide retail trend which has been struggling in the same period. Baby Universe director Shame Loomb puts the result down to the working relationship he established with online finance provider perweek.co.nz one year ago; "Perweek adds an extra affordability option for our customers both online and in-store. It is easy to use and makes our quality baby gear and toys affordable through weekly payments."

Perweek.co.nz founder, Peter Terpstra, is enthusiastic about the result; "We hypothesized there was a price 'glass-ceiling' with online purchases, and the perweek.co.nz site was built to smash through this by offering easy weekly payments."
“The Baby Universe online store was established and doing well, but since combining with perweek.co.nz it has seen a marked increase in sales of its more expensive products (like strollers and cots) as customers now have access to our weekly payment option.”

Mr Terpstra founded Perweek in 2006 after being frustrated with the slow progress of traditional banking practices; perweek.co.nz now enables online retailers to offer transactional credit to consumers at the point of sale. With its sophisticated underwriting techniques and credit decision model, Perweek provides approval decisions for shoppers within seconds without requiring them to complete detailed application forms.

Helping to validate the perweek model is eBay's recent purchase of billmelater.com for US$945m. “This major transaction is testament to the value and potential of online financing of consumer purchases,” adds Mr Terpstra.

Perweek now has over 50 wholesale and retail suppliers and over 80 of New Zealand's best known brands offering a huge range of products from TV's to waterskis and baby strollers to electric scooters! They even have jet-powered kayaks on the site, believe it or not!

ENDS