After having turned over more than $600,000 dollars in November last year leading to the Christmas season to the bush businesses, online marketplace Buy From The Bush (BFTB) aims to repeat, if not exceed, the same goals set for bush businesses this year.
The Buy From the Bush team is hoping people across the county will support rural small businesses anew this holiday season and avail themselves of some of their unique products being offered in the marketplace as gifts for the holiday season.
“Buy From The Bush helps you discover unique gifts that you wouldn’t stumble across in a mall or high street store. Much of it is hand-crafted and sourced locally,” BFTB founder Grace Brennan said. “We curate the very best of stylish country store finds in one easy platform. The best bit is knowing that your gift helps to generate cashflow, create jobs and provide opportunity for small rural communities across Australia.”
The announcement comes as the BFTB marketplace recently celebrated its first anniversary on 22 October, the date when PayPal Australia and Buy From The Bush joined forces to launch the marketplace. A 100 per cent Australian project, the marketplace was built on Australian-developed technology from the marketplace.
The partnership with PayPal saw the BFTB movement develop a permanent, secure, and easy to use eCommerce site and has worked to build stronger connections between the bush and the city to help ensure the long-term survival for rural businesses and communities.
“While Buy From The Bush was born of drought, it has now seen rural small business through a series of crises including fires and a global pandemic,” Brennan said. “One year on, the Buy From The Bush marketplace is now a significant channel to market for rural small and micro business. While $600K in one month pre-Christmas is significant, it is perhaps our capacity to foster growth and innovation that excites me the most. This is only the beginning.”
The BFTB Marketplace features more than 250 rural and regional small businesses across rural Australia. Through the platform, bush businesses have shipped to approximately 30 countries including the US, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Chile, China and Qatar.
“PayPal’s mission is to enable all people and businesses to join and thrive in the global digital economy by making commerce more convenient, affordable and secure,” Eric Lassen, CEO of PayPal Australia, said. “We feel privileged to work with Buy From the Bush and empower this purpose-driven business with the technology needed to help expand the economic opportunities for small businesses in rural and regional Australia.”
