iQ Toys wins Hitwise Award

www.iqtoys.co.nz has been announced as the #1 website in the Toys & Hobbies category at the annual Hitwise online performance awards. Other winners include www.wiggles.com for Bands and Artists, www.trademe.co.nz for Auction websites and www.oxfam.org.nz for the Humanitarian category.

The Hitwise performance awards recognise excellence in online performance through public popularity, awarding websites in over 100 categories based on internet usage of over 460,000 New Zealand Internet Users and 60,000 New Zealand websites.

iQ Toys started in 1996 and was New Zealand’s first online toy store and one of the first online retailers in New Zealand. It’s Australian website www.iqtoys.com.au, launched in 2001 is now one of the most popular online toy stores in Australia. To accommodate the Australian growth a Queensland branch was purchased late last year, which now employs 2 staff.

iQ Toys and sister company Baby Universe (www.babyuniverse.co.nz) have experienced solid growth and now have a full-time staff of 10 with 2-3 extra full-time staff expected to be recruited before the year-end. Commenting on the growth, Managing Director Shane Loomb says “Internet retailers have been resilient to the recession as customers seek more efficient ways of purchasing.”.