Attracting twenty-five thousand women to a consumer movement sounds like an ambitious target but within hours of launching, SwitchedOn Women was more than one fifth of the way there.
Launched by TV personality Kerri-Anne Kennerley on Monday morning, the women’s group buying site claimed it already had more than 5800 women signed up before close-of-business Monday afternoon.
The site, an offshoot of One Big Switch, is based on the premise that women usually control the majority of their household’s budget, and yet companies have often struggled to directly market their goods and services to women.
It’s also leveraged off the fact that women are entering the workforce in greater numbers than ever before, yet still doing the vast majority of the uppaid domestic and caring work, according to ABS statistics. Women are looking for good deals, but don’t always have the time to shop for them.
The platform aims to leverage the buying power of thousands of women to get deals on everyday household needs such as energy, groceries and petrol.
Kennerly told Women’s Agenda SwitchedOn Women aims to particularly appeal to time-poor women. “You know you can always go looking for a good deal, but you can’t always be bothered. We’re all time poor,” she said. “This is the first time somebody’s been able to harness a stack of women on one hand, then on the other hand, put together businesses who are keen to target women. It’s to save money and to gain profit.”
SwitchedOn’s goal is to see 25,000 members sign-up in order to start offering discounts women, and encourage companies to customise their goods and services to meet the specific needs of Australian women.
As well as having Kennerly involved, a number of special advisers are also working on the project including lawyer and director of Equity Economics & Development Partners Amanda Robbins, entrepreneur and founder of Harris Farm Markets’ Catherine Harris, and investor and Heads Over Heels co-founder Melissa Widner.