Belly Beyond a finalist in 2009 Awards

Blooming Excellent; Belly Beyond a finalist at the 2009 Bloom HerBusiness Awards

Who says you can’t mix business with pleasure? No one told Belly Beyond co-founders and friends Louisa Currie and Heidi Riley, whose business was a finalist in the Best New Business category at the Bloom HerBusiness Forum & Awards held at the Heritage Hotel in Auckland last night.

Belly Beyond was launched on Mother’s Day last year and has grown enormously since then. What started out as an online store with gift packs for mothers – packed with the essentials as well as the treats - has bloomed into a busy online store with over 300 products and daily shipments to all parts of Australasia.  From sexy lingerie for pregnant mum- to-be’s, gift packs, baby entertainment, clothing, carriers and more, they have everything parents need at the click of a button.

Louisa and Heidi have been friends for years and are both mothers of young children. They felt there was a gap in the market for a retailer that had good quality, holistic products for pregnancy, birth and beyond.  Even though they didn’t win the Best New Business category, the co-founders are delighted to have made it to finalist status, Louisa Curries states, “this is so exciting for us, we’ve only been operating for just over a year so are honoured to have been shortlisted for Best New Business; the Bloom Awards are a great forum for celebrating women in business and we’re so happy to have our passion and hard-work recognised.”

They count a lot of the success of Belly Beyond to their embracing of social media to promote their website and products. Using facebook, twitter and blogging to inform their customers about what’s new, what’s on sale and what’s going on, they have built up a strong database already.

 “The internet is a really important tool for mothers at home with small kids – it’s a great way of connecting with the outside world, communicating with other mums and building up that social network” says Louisa, “we wanted to tap into that by making our baby products store only available online.”

What advice would the women behind Belly Beyond give to other people growing a business in these economic times?  “People will still spend money in a recession but they are more choosy about what they are purchasing, just make sure you’re offering your customers the best quality products available.”

Like the belly of a pregnant mum-to-be this online store is growing fast.  Says Heidi, “We have put a lot of ourselves, our experience, and love of motherhood into the brand, and we use the products ourselves. So far the feedback from our customers has been humbling and having received a finalist placing at the Bloom Awards as well has reaffirmed we’re on the right track.”

For more information visit: www.bellybeyond.co.nz

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