Enterprise: Spend With Us
Why they stand out online: The platform showcases about 1500 sellers – all from rural and regional Australia – with over 25,000 products to choose from.
Spend With Us was founded by NSW-based web designer Sarah Britz (pictured, centre), Victoria-based clinical psychologist Lauren Hateley (pictured, right), and NSW-based marketer Jenn Donovan (pictured, left). The trio came together in August 2020 to increase the impact of their initiatives on the rural and regional small-business community.
“Being a rural lady born and bred myself, I know that if farmers don’t have money then towns are going to struggle as well,” Jenn – a 2023 ISB Top 50 Small Business Leader – explains. “So, as Christmas 2019 approached and rural small-business owners were concerned about the Christmas season, I launched a simple Facebook group called ‘Buy From a Bush Business’ and invited my friends, family and colleagues to join.
“From there, they invited their friends and so on, until not long after launching we had over 360,000 members, all supporting, buying from and cheering on rural and regional small businesses.”
On the back of this support, Jenn joined forces with Sarah, who built the Spend With Us website, and Lauren to create an online marketplace that would empower Australians to support rural and regional businesses. Spend With Us showcases products from handmade clothing to big dining tables, from garden ornaments to recycled and upcycled goods and everything in between. “Perhaps the challenge might be finding something that isn’t there!” Jenn enthuses. “There are currently around 1500 sellers on the platform with just over 25,000 products to choose from.”
“We are a community first and a marketplace second.”
The only rule for selling on the platform is that you have to be located in a rural/regional or remote area of Australia. “Just having handmade, handcrafted products wasn’t going to help small rural businesses survive and thrive, because many import their products or buy from Australian suppliers – and they needed more sales, too – so we made the decision to help everyone who needed help, not just those who made products themselves,” Jenn explains.
Online business Spend With Us not only helps with sales, but also gives small rural businesses a space where they can have a light shone on them, their goods and their story. “It’s a very competitive landscape out there for any business, but for those dealing with crisis or hard economic times, it becomes harder to get on page one of Google, to get noticed on social media platforms or to find the revenue to run ads to their website,” Jenn explains. “So, having a community that shines a light on you is a blessing.
“We are a community first and a marketplace second,” Jenn adds. “We have all come together during some of the most rotten times in the world, yet some of the best times in the eCommerce age. There is little doubt that online buying grew enormously during the pandemic and I am thrilled we were there to help shine some light on small businesses in rural and regional areas.”
In 2021, Spend With Us launched the Australian Rural Business Awards – the nation’s only awards program that celebrates rural and regional small businesses. “We don’t celebrate being in business enough, so Sarah and I thought an awards program would be a wonderful way to help small businesses not only see what they have achieved by going through the application process, but also spend one night a year celebrating all things rural and regional small business,” Jenn enthuses. “We have always described our marketplace as the answer to Amazon for rural and regional Australian small businesses, so the vision is to one day be the household name that Amazon” has become.
This article first appeared in issue 42 of the Inside Small Business quarterly magazine
