Fountaindale based Freelance Web Designer; Sarah Britz, will be recognised at the Resilience Australia Awards for her work in creating the Spend With Us Marketplace.
Britz and her Spend With Us Marketplace co-founders, Jenn Donovan and Lauren Hateley, have made it to the finals in the WebEOC category for their work in setting up an online platform for small businesses to sell their products in the wake of the 2019/20 bushfires.
During the height of the 2019/20 Australian Bushfires, the Spend With Us marketplace was created to assist bushfire-affected small businesses to continue trade and get their products online for free, with no technical knowledge required, whilst also providing a central place for consumers to search, find and support businesses in need.
Spend With Us became Australia’s first and largest online marketplace dedicated to rural and regional small and micro businesses.
Rural communities can diversify their income streams and be more resilient in difficult times as a result.
“It is amazing and it’s such an honour to be recognised like this,” said Britz of becoming a finalist.
“I’m a web designer by trade and I created Spend With Us after I was contacted to set up a website for a small business.
“I then though why stop there and created Spend With Us as a one stop shop for small businesses to list their wares.
“It started when the bushfires were about, and it really took off in lockdown.
“Now we have over 1,200 businesses across Australia offering over 7,000 products, and we have over 320,000 members in our Buy From a Bush Business Facebook group.
“Business owners have really responded well to the website; they’ve told us they would have closed if it wasn’t for us.
“It really helped businesses impacted by the bushfires stay open, while expanding their customer base and giving them new ways to sell their products,” Britz said.
The Resilience Australia Awards is a nation-wide program that celebrates, shares and promotes initiatives that build and foster community resilience to disasters and emergencies.
Since 2000, the awards have showcased innovation and exemplary practice across Australia, celebrating achievements that might otherwise go unseen, and inspiring others to build greater disaster resilience in their own communities.
The Resilience Australia Award Winners will be announced on December 8 in a Zoom conference.
Harry Mulholland