Shippit, the last-mile delivery platform  across Australia, New Zealand and Asia, has announced a strategic partnership with eBay Australia, through which thousands of sellers on the platform will have access to best-in-class shipping and fulfilment solutions and services. 

The partnership will deliver optionality and deliverability for all customers, but for the first time the sellers with freight that is traditionally hard to handle will have the same shipping optionality as anyone else. Currently, eBay sellers can access a labels platform that enables them to quote, print and pay for labels for items up to 22kg. 

Through the new integration with Shippit, eBay sellers will be able to access a solution for heavier, bulkier items such as hardware, furniture and electronics. In the last financial year alone, 2.7 million deliveries – with a total value of over AUD$2billion – over 22kg were shipped through the Shippit platform. 

As consumer demand for quick, convenient and transparent delivery increases, the partnership with Shippit, enables eBay sellers to:

• Ensure seamless post-purchase experiences with automated and reliable tracking notifications and dedicated delivery support;
• Access flexible and fast fulfilment solutions to streamline pick and pack workflows and packaging decisions for consistent, error-free fulfilment;
• Centralise controls and access to leading and specialised carriers plus exclusive delivery rates for flexible shipping options at checkout.

Shippit evolution

The integration continues a recent trend through which Shippit has been selected as a partner of choice and integrated into global eCommerce platforms including Wix and Shopline. Last year, meanwhile, Shippit announced a landmark partnership with Uber, through which thousands of retailers would have access to one-hour delivery.

“We’re incredibly excited to partner with eBay, bringing the power of Shippit’s last mile platform to its retailers who are looking to maximise their customers lifetime value, while not sacrificing operating margins” said Chris Weaver, Chief Commercial Officer at, Shippit. “Retailers, not just in Australia but across APAC, rely on Shippit daily to ensure that the delivery promises they make to their customers are kept. Shippit is a mission-critical part of the ecommerce tech stack for retailers, small, medium and large. Our data shows retailers with multiple carriers grow faster, and we’re excited to be able to provide those capabilities to eBay sellers in Australia, many of whom are small businesses.

“We’ve spent the last nearly-10 years building the industry’s most advanced shipping and fulfilment platform. But as the industry evolves, so too must Shippit. That’s why we invest heavily in research and development, and in partnerships and integrations. By investing in that, we’re investing in our customers and in our customers’ customers. Partnering with eBay today – as well as Wix, Shopline, Uber and all those that will follow – is an endorsement, from the industry, of our mission to shape the future of retail and bring retailers, carriers, and consumers closer together.”

“At eBay we are committed to delivering the most value possible to our sellers and that is why we selected Shippit to help power last mile delivery,” Marie Griffiths, Head of Shipping and Trust at eBay Australia, added. “Together with Shippit, our sellers are going to be able to build trust with their customers by meeting the delivery promises made – from the very first purchase. We can’t wait to see our sellers capitalising on this partnership as soon as possible.”

Over 100 million deliveries are booked through the Shippit platform every year. Since its launch in 2014, over $7.5bn worth of ecommerce orders have been fulfilled through Shippit’s platform, on behalf of thousands of retailers including Kmart, Cotton On, Woolworths, Total Tools, Temple & Webster.

For more information about Shippit and eBay’s integration, visit shippit.com/ebay. 

As the cost of living continues to rise and more and more people are looking for ways to lower their expenses, Australia’s Aspera Mobile has celebrated its 10-year anniversary by launching a new range of low cost, full featured phones. The first smartphone to be launched in the new range is the unlocked 4G AS5 which at just $99 includes face recognition, a 5-inch display and a removable 2000mAh battery.

The 4G AS5’s main features include:

• Face recognition
• Octa-Core 1.6GHz CPU
• 2GB RAM + 32GB ROM plus up to 1GB additional virtual RAM allocated from unused ROM
• 5-inch FWVGA display
• 4G connectivity with VoLTE data calls improving voice quality
• 5MP rear and 5MP front camera
• 2000m Li-Ion removable battery
• Micro USB, Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi hotspot connectivity
• Dual 4G SIM slots
• Android 13 (Go edition) 
• 4G bands – 1/3/5/7/8/28a+b, 3G bands – 850/900/2100Mhz
• 146.5mm*74mm*9.9mm in size

Aspera Mobile MD Allan Robertson explained, “We were delighted to celebrate our tenth year as a fully Australian owned and operated business this year. To mark the occasion we are launching our new range of phones starting with the AS5 4G smartphone for just $99. For the AS5 we are offering many of the features that are included on higher priced smartphones and thus by definition redefining what is possible at this price point. For example, the AS5 offers a 1.6GHz Octa-core processor, 2GB RAM plus 1GB virtual RAM and face recognition, which we believe is the first time this combination of features have been offered in Australia in an unlocked smartphone under $100. You will pay significantly more to see all of these features in other phones.”

Aspera has always tried to offer the best value for money in all of their phones. During Covid-19, the company saw increasing supply chain and logistics costs with the $99 price point for smartphones all but disappearing as a result. More recently, as these cost pressures eased, the company is now once again able to offer Australian consumers a highly featured smartphone for just $99.

Robertson continued, “The AS5 and the other phones we will launch this year set us apart from our competitors. The AS5 is a compact, well featured but lower cost smartphone aimed squarely at the younger audience, the budget conscious and indeed anyone who wants the power and versatility of a smartphone at a fraction of the cost of what you will pay from many other manufacturers. It has a quality feel, two good cameras and many other features which make it terrific value at just $99.”

The AS5 also brings more smarts to its memory use with its clever Octa-Core CPU and ability to re-assign any available ROM to create an additional 1GB of virtual RAM and help the OS and apps launch and run faster and more efficiently.

Robertson continued, “The AS5 is one of six new Australian designed models set to release in 2023. Our customer support centre is also based in Australia and as a result of our continued commitment to the Australian market, I’m delighted to say we recently notched up over one million phones sold and we have also continued to export products to the wider Oceanic region.”

Having made it through the many challenges presented by Covid-19 and now experiencing a robust and rapid expansion, Aspera’s new AS5 forms part of a wide range of products from the company which includes over 60 different models of featured, smart and rugged phones brought to market to date.

Allan Robertson concluded, “We are very proud of our 10 years of manufacturing good quality, reliable and low-cost phones. The AS5 very much embodies Aspera Mobile’s value for money ethos by delivering customers a lot of functionality and performance blended with good design and without the premium price tag. The AS5 essentially redefines Aspera’s value proposition at the entry level and also appeals to retailers who know their budget conscious customers want to stay well connected and have a great experience on their smartphone.”

The new Aspera Mobile AS5 4G smartphone is available now and can be purchased for just $99 at retailers including Big W, Ritchies IGA, Seasons IGA, Freedom Fuels, Trinity Petroleum, Mobiciti and Personal Digital.

For more information on the new 4G AS5 go to: https://asperamobile.com/phones/smart-phones/aspera-as5/

Mastercard is conducting a pilot with Service NSW and Tipple to allow consumers to verify their age securely and seamlessly in the digital and physical world. The pilot Mastercard’s digital identity service, ID, to verify their age when making an online liquor purchase at Tipple.

This latest pilot follows Mastercard’s accreditation under the Australian Government’s Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF) and builds on previous pilots that explore how ID can securely connect and integrate with services from other identity providers.

Protecting consumers’ information through ID ensures that businesses have a convenient, secure and smart way of minimising security and fraud risk, instilling trust in their customer interactions without adding unnecessary friction or sacrificing a quality user experience. It can also reduce the likelihood of identity crime, which costs Australia upwards of $1.6 billion each year.

When making a purchase at Tipple, participants verify their identity by connecting to the Service NSW app which has been integrated with the Mastercard ID Network. The only information received by Tipple is a verification indicating the consumer is over 18 years of age. Consumers do not need to share their date of birth, identity document numbers, or copies of their documents. This approach ensures that only the minimum amount of information needed to complete their purchase is provided, helping to preserve the consumer’s privacy while streamlining the transaction.

“In today’s landscape, there needs to be a better way to provide quick and easy access to goods and services, without the hassle of sharing physical ID documents. Mastercard is working with the public and private sectors to build a national identity ecosystem where citizens can trust that their personal information is safe and secure. Connecting with trusted, innovative platforms like Service NSW and Tipple extends the value and use of ID to more providers and partner organisations in Mastercard’s network,” said Richard Wormald, Division President, Australasia, Mastercard.

“For digital identity adoption to become mainstream, it is critical that the customer has a seamless experience and the confidence that the information they are sharing with the provider is secure. By partnering with Mastercard for Service NSW, we’re providing our customers with market leading solutions from trusted providers. We are extremely excited and proud to be involved in the pilot,” said Ryan Barrington, Chief Executive Officer, Tipple.

Mastercard’s digital identity service was built with interoperability in mind and can connect existing identity providers with other organisations, like Service NSW, with verification facilitated by Mastercard’s highly secure network.

ID enables customers to create a convenient, safe, and reusable digital identity, allowing them to share verified information quickly and securely. Using data encryption and biometric authentication to protect personal identity information keeps consumers in control of their data and reduces fraud, enabling them to choose what information to provide, to which organisations, and when. Leveraging Mastercard’s global network and data privacy practices, ID offers a highly secure end-to-end solution for digitally creating, managing, and verifying identities.

Mastercard has been scaling ID in Australia since 2019, announcing partnerships with Optus, Samsung, and Microsoft. Mastercard will continue to roll out ID in other industries and verticals across Australia, helping businesses solve real-world problems, including reducing fraud and identity theft, while improving the consumer experience.

Please visit mastercard.com.au/id to learn more about Mastercard’s vision for digital identity.

To help small business preserve their ever-growing digital world, Western Digital’s WD® brand is expanding its trusted My Book™ Desktop Storage lineup. Built upon a legacy of technology innovation, the company has released its highest capacity drive ever with the 22TB My Book™ Desktop Hard Drive, giving people greater flexibility to store more of what they love.

“Small business continue generating data at a rapid pace. In 2022 alone, the average household worldwide generated more than 20TB of data¹ and we expect this number to continue to rise as people continue to consume and create more data,” said John Rydning, research vice president, Global DataSphere at International Data Corporation (IDC), a global market intelligence firm. “While many people rely on the cloud, we know consumers are looking for local storage at their fingertips to help them preserve and readily control their growing amount of personal and business data.”

With more than ten connected devices in the average American household², the new high-capacity solutions give people a significant amount of space to essentially help backup their personal devices— and even those of their small businesses as well. Whether it’s priceless photos and videos or a backup of their most important work files and applications, the WD brand seeks to offer people solutions that keep up with their evolving data storage needs.

“With multiple devices used in our everyday life, we have the ability to instantly create, consume and generate massive amounts of content,” said Susan Park, vice president of product management at Western Digital. “Our goal is to help people easily and reliably store it all.” 

The 22TB* My Book offers users the ability to backup and preserve thousands of documents, photos, videos, and other files from a variety of storage devices, including portable SSDs and HDDs, memory cards and USB flash drives, consolidating them into one organised and easy to access location. For those looking for more robust storage capabilities, the My Book Duo is also now available in a 44TB* capacity, equipped with RAID-optimised Western Digital® drives that are ready to perform at maximum speed and capacity right out of the box. My Book Duo can be reconfigured to RAID-1 for redundancy (data mirroring) or used as two independent drives (JBOD) with the included software.

Commonwealth Bank, Doshii and Uber have signed a multi-year partnership designed to drive efficiencies and increase revenue channels for Australian hospitality businesses, at a time the sector is grappling with rising costs and staff shortages.

As part of the agreement, Uber Eats and Australia’s largest hospitality integration platform Doshii will unite in a multi-year partnership to bring innovative technology to small business owners.

“This is a win for the Australian hospitality industry and makes it easier for businesses to efficiently and seamlessly manage their day-to-day payments operations,” said CBA general manager of merchant solutions, Karen Last. “By allowing restaurants and other hospitality venues to integrate Uber via Doshii, they will be able to manage food ordering, loyalty programs, reservations, online delivery services and point of sale payments into a single system. When coupled together with our forthcoming Smart hospitality app it provides the next level of experience for hospitality staff and their patrons alike.”

Under the arrangement, CommBank will work with Uber’s Australian delivery business to deploy Doshii’s technology across the nation.  

“It’s been a tough few years for the hospitality industry, with many venues still struggling to find staff and keep a lid on rising costs. With Uber Eats joining Doshii’s integrations marketplace, we’re excited to be able to help venues get orders out faster and serve more customers more efficiently by eliminating the need for staff to manually re-enter each Uber Eats order into their point-of-sale,” said Doshii CEO, Justin O’Donnell.

An Australian success story and backed by CommBank’s x15ventures, Doshii has already helped venues serve up close to 300 million orders to hungry and thirsty customers with point-of-sale (POS) partnerships covering approximately 80% of Australian hospitality venues. Uber Eats joins a fast-growing menu of hospitality apps and platforms able to be connected to a venue’s POS using the Doshii platform, including rostering, reservations and in-venue ordering solutions

In addition to the Doshii integration, the agreement will see Uber become CBA’s preferred rideshare provider for staff across Australia. 

“Uber remains laser focused on deploying our technology to unlock magical experiences for customers and merchants. This three way partnership will spark added convenience for thousands of small businesses, for millions of eaters and of course for Commonwealth Bank’s team through our Uber for Business product. This linkup is set to be an exciting development for shared customers across all companies,” said Senior Director, Head of APAC Marketing at Uber Lucinda Barlow, “We’re already engaging collaboratively with CommBank to make sure this partnership will unlock value across several key Uber properties – including our membership offering Uber One, which is a major focus for our business in 2023.” 

“As Australia’s leading bank, CommBank is constantly seeking to innovate for the benefit of its customers. In Uber we are confident that we have found a partner with a similar culture of innovation and leadership in its chosen fields and we are excited by the multiple ways in which this can drive value for our customers and people,” said Chris Austin, General Manager Group Business Development Partnerships.

The Brave Group Pty Ltd is now the official Australian office for The Great Game of Business (originated MO, USA) providing local support for Australian and New Zealand businesses. With Certified Coaches located across Australia, The Brave Group are experts in transformative cultural change typified by The Great Game. Each coach brings an average of 15 years playing the game and will focus on coaching local business to help them deliver rapid financial results and long-lasting cultural change.

The Great Game of Business opens the books and educates employees on business finance creating a culture where employees think, act and feel like business owners. The Great Game of Business focuses on the importance of engaging a team, of creating increased knowledge and financial understanding so that the culture of the business becomes the driving force behind success. Underpinning The Great Game, are the core beliefs that improving financial performance within any business can only occur if the people are part of, understand and drive, those changes. It links people and the business in a common goal. It is the only truly transparent business culture and is proven to be the differentiator in attracting and retaining people.

“I am thrilled that our organisation, The Brave Group, has been given the opportunity to be the official office for The Great Game of Business in Australia and New Zealand. Our team has firsthand experience in the financial and cultural benefits that the Great Game system brings to a company and its people, and we are passionate about creating a community of like-minded organisations here in this region” The Brave Group co-Founder Kelli Hayes.

Certified Great Game of Business Coaches; Kelli Hayes, Sue Robinson, Adam Nicholls, and Bianca Presutto, have firsthand experience playing the game for an Australian company that was a Great Game of Business All Star and also inducted into The Great Game of Business Hall of Fame.  With extensive coaching and consulting experience and a proven and practical approach to applying the game, each brings their own strengths to help like-minded businesses with a tailored approach – no matter where they are in their Great Game of Business journey 

The Brave Group is proud to officially represent The Great Game of Business in Australia.

Canva, the global visual communications platform, today announced a suite of new workplace products and features created to empower anyone to communicate visually, on any device, from anywhere in the world.

“Visual communication is becoming an increasingly critical skill for teams of every size across almost every industry,” said Canva co-founder and CEO, Melanie Perkins. “It has been incredible to see the continued growth of Canva over the last few years, as more and more people embrace the power of visual communication to unlock their creativity and achieve their goals. With the launch of our new Visual Worksuite, we’re bringing simple design products to the workplace to empower every employee, at every organization and on every device.”

Canva’s new visual worksuite comes as the company marks the milestone of more than 85 million global users, who produce more than 180 designs every second. As enterprise usage soars throughout a variety of professions and industries, Canva is rapidly becoming the design platform of choice in the workplace. This demand is evidenced by the more than 10,000 current jobs on LinkedIn listing Canva as a desired skill across many companies, including American Express, Amazon, TikTok, LEGO and Google.

From large organizations to small businesses, more than 4 million paying customers are embracing Canva for Teams – the company’s collaborative all-in-one design solution – to empower their workforce who have increasing needs to communicate visually. This has more than tripled in the last twelve months as companies such as Zoom, Salesforce, PayPal, Reddit, Sony Music and OrangeTheory replace legacy design tools with Canva’s all-in-one platform.

“Canva has been an invaluable tool for our business, transforming how our creative and social teams work with one another by making it easier for staff to create new designs in a way that maintains brand consistency,” says Marissa Kraines, Vice President of Social and Content Marketing at Salesforce. “It’s also enabled our team to scale best practices when it comes to visual communications across the company, ensuring that we can create compelling content across all of our social and owned channels.”

New worksuite: Docs, Whiteboards, Websites, Video, Data Visualisation and more

Canva Docs: Built with the modern workplace in mind, Canva Docs makes traditional text documents more visually captivating, while also including key collaboration features like comments and real time collaboration. Users can also access Canva’s 100 million+ library of design assets and embed them into their work for a personalized approach to document creation. Plus, in a world where presenting work is often not text based, Canva Docs can easily be turned into a fully fledged Canva Presentation with the simple click of a button.

Canva Websites: A new way to build simple websites for any occasion. Create visually appealing and interactive websites from any device without the technical skills needed to do so. With hundreds of responsive professional-level website templates, customizable domains and adjustable page heights, a highly secure and optionally password protected website can be created and published in minutes. Built to drive engagement, it also comes with Canva’s new Design Insights analytics feature, which sheds light on site visits and allows the builder to get a pulse on audience and interest.

Canva Whiteboards: Canva Whiteboards bring a fast and fresh approach to how teams shape and explore ideas together. Combining the simplicity of Canva’s editing experience with an infinite canvas, Canva Whiteboards comes with a range of features designed for brainstorming and team collaboration. From sticky notes to images and diagrams, synced timer to keep brainstorming on track, and more, this new product embraces the world of hybrid work to encourage collaboration and productivity in distributed teams.

Video Background Remover: One of Canva’s most popular features is now available as part of the Canva Video Suite, taking video creation to the next level. With one click, users can remove the background from any video making it faster and easier than ever to create professional-looking content without expansive budgets or complex software.

Expanding Canva Print: While much of visual communication is digital, when there is a need for a physical product, Canva Print makes the process simple, and approaches it in a sustainable way. As of today, anyone can print more than 35 products through Canva Print and have it delivered to their doorstep in record time. This includes everything from invitations to flyers, photo books and hoodies, mugs posters, and much more.

Committed to a sustainable future, Canva will plant a tree for every print order placed through its partnership One Print, One Tree reforestation program. As of today, more than 2.4 million trees have been planted with a further 5 million trees to be planted by the end of the year.

Data Visualization: Anyone can level up their data storytelling with Flourish, making it possible to turn dense data and statistics into simple, clear and easy to understand interactive data visualizations. With templates for almost any need – from animated bar races, to drill-down sunbursts – it’s easier than ever to make complex data accessible and meaningful to anyone, in any organization, in the workplace.

Remote Control for Presentations: Canva adds remote presentation control to its Presentation product, enabling multiple presenters to control the flow of their presentation from any device using a new virtual clicker

Australian leading virtual corporate card expense management company, DiviPay, has released its Working From Home Has Killed the Office Credit Card whitepaper. The report provides an in-depth analysis of corporate card spend management in Australia, including new data on how the archaic methods of corporate expense management and reimbursements is contributing to growing employee dissatisfaction in the workplace. 

Insights include:

• Over a third of the employees surveyed (37%) admit to putting off work-related purchases to avoid out-of-pocket spending
• Almost half (47%) of Australian employees who’ve paid out of pocket in the last year admit to feeling anxious or worried about reimbursements.
• Over half (59%) of employees surveyed would prefer to work for a company that provides access to a corporate card.
• It explores corporate expense management difficulties and the delicate balance required for CFO control and confidence, employee flexibility and how many Aussie businesses aren’t getting it right 
• However, as the whitepaper highlights, in a time of inflation, tech layoffs and severe talent shortages, businesses need to be taking proactive measures to keep employees happy. 

Russell Martin, Co-Founder and CTO at DiviPay, says:

“I’ve met with many CEOs and CFOs in my time and there’s definitely a disconnect when it comes to the importance of a streamlined expense management process. Employee wellbeing and job satisfaction have catapulted up the priority list with many companies offering a myriad of perks to bolster culture, engagement, trust and productivity – yet somehow work reimbursements seem to slip the net. 

“Our research has shown that employees are experiencing high levels of anxiety when claiming back work expenses but this is something that is easily fixable. Having a robust, easy-to-use platform for corporate claims may seem like a small initiative but it can make all the difference to an employee’s job satisfaction and will be crucial for employee retention.”

You can find the full  WFH Has Killed the Office Credit Card report here.