The activity gifting platform driving small business sales
- Written by Dan Frkic and Con Apostolopoulos
With the rising cost of living and soaring inflation, many parents are under pressure to cut their children’s extracurricular and sporting activities out of their budgets. The current economic conditions have rapidly reduced children’s participation in sport across Australia. This has impacted small businesses greatly with 40% of parents pulling kids out of extracurricular activities to save money (or are in the process of planning to).
As parents, we understand how difficult it can be to afford kids’ activities. We are concerned about the physical and mental impact this has on kids’ declining activity levels. According to published data, only 43% of children currently participate in sport once a week. This is quite alarming and we need to take care of our children’s futures.
Passionate about getting more kids more active, we founded PrezentBox to offer a financial solution to parents. The platform allows family and friends to gift funds towards kids participating in activities within their local communities. We focus on promoting and growing local activity providers, by increasing kids' participation in activities.
PrezentBox is the first digital activity based sustainable gifting platform that lets family and friends support Aussie kid’s activities. The platform strategically partners with small business to help and promote them.
We have been successful in onboarding businesses by demonstrating how our platform addresses parent’s pain points. The decline in kid’s physical and mental health caused by increasing screen time and sedentary behaviour is a major concern for parents. From a business lens, this will help activity providers boost sales and supercharge their business by attracting and retaining customers.
Centre Stage Dance Studio is an activity provider that has seen success partnering with PrezentBox. The dance studio is located in Narellan in NSW and provides a wide variety of dance classes to children. April, the owner of Centre Stage Dance Studio, speaks to the challenges small businesses like hers often face. She said, “Before working with PrezentBox, I found it difficult to retain kids, as parents found it hard to pay for their fees. So having a platform where family and friends can use kids' birthdays to contribute funds is amazing.”
Each year, $3 billion is spent on the toy industry in Australia. From personal experience, we know the frustration parents can face seeing the abundance of ‘stuff’ gifted during birthdays and Christmas. We aim to redirect consumer spending on gifts towards kids' activities, a sustainable alternative to gifts that promotes small businesses growth. Data reveals 79 percent of parents state discounts and vouchers would help them to keep their kids enrolled in extra-curricular activities, so parents are calling out for a means to subsidise their kid’s activities. State Government Vouchers like NSW Active Kids have shown success in having more kids stay enrolled in activities when provided with financial support.
The platform offers a way for activity providers to continue to grow in our communities. Through providing payment alternatives, registering with our digital gifting platform ensures parents can buy experiences from your business.
Our mission is to promote children’s growth and development both mental and physical health, bringing customers to you. PrezentBox helps family and friends contribute to active experiences instead of giving more ‘stuff’ for their next occasion. For business owners, who are time poor, the platform is quick and easy to navigate. In the last 12 months of partnering with PrezentBox, Centre Stage Dance Studio has processed $9,000 worth of redemptions.
April from Centre Stage Dance Studio said, “Our customers love PrezentBox, it gives them the opportunity to ask family and friends to contribute to their kid's extracurricular activities without feeling uncomfortable about asking for support to make them more affordable. Parents are looking for alternative payment options and PrezentBox provides them an option to get their kid's activity fees paid for. I would definitely recommend it for businesses too, I'm part of a huge dance community, and if you're a business that offers kid's activities this definitely will help you retain your customers and hopefully get their kids into exploring more types of dance classes.”
We are passionate about the importance of activities to kids’ growth and wellbeing – and with family’s tightening their budgets we show customers the value their local businesses provide. Our vision with PrezentBox is to become the leader in kids’ gifting and make ‘activity based gifting’ a household staple for Australian families.
PrezentBox provides a meaningful gift giving option for children, friends and families and helps protect our planet while growing small businesses that provide sport and health alternatives.
