Mighty Ape Ltd is an

online retailing Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser or a mobile app. Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the r ...

company founded and operating in New Zealand since 1999, and owned by Australian company

Kogan.com Kogan.com is an Australian portfolio of retail and services businesses including Kogan Retail, Kogan Marketplace, Kogan Mobile, Kogan Internet, Kogan Insurance, Kogan Travel, Kogan Money, Kogan Cars, Kogan Energy, Dick Smith, Matt Blatt and Migh ...

since 2020. Formerly known as ''Gameplanet Store'', it is one of the longest running online retailers in New Zealand. Founded by Simon Barton as Virtual Stores (NZ), Ltd. in 1999, the company began by selling

computer and video games ''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website ...

under the ''GameZone'' brand. In 2003 the business rebranded to ''Gameplanet Store'' (or ''GP Store''). Over the following years the product range expanded to include DVD movies, PC hardware and music. In 2008 the company relaunched as Mighty Ape and began selling books and toys.

History

Simon Barton first founded ''Micro-World'' in 1993, a small retail store in

Mt Eden Mount Eden is a suburb in Auckland, New Zealand whose name honours George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland. It is south of the Central Business District (CBD). Mt Eden Road winds its way around the side of Mount Eden Domain and continues to weave ba ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, that sold

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

computers. When Amiga production ceased, the business shifted its focus to selling video games and rebranded to ''GameZone''. Several other stores were opened in Auckland; however this proved unsuccessful, and GameZone reverted to having one store (on Symonds St in the Auckland CBD), run with the help of Zane Hemingway. GameZone became well known for its large-scale product launch parties, including one for the original

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

. GameZone created its first e-commerce website in 1998, allowing the company to begin selling video games online and cater to a wider customer base. The site was mostly developed by Simon Garner, whom Simon Barton later partnered with in 2000 to start a separate venture called Gameplanet, a gaming website which publishes video game news, reviews, previews, downloads and community forums. GameZone began operating under the company name ''Virtual Stores (NZ), Ltd'' in 1999. In 2003, GameZone was rebranded as ''Gameplanet Store'' (or ''GP Store''). This coincided with the closure of the Symonds St store and opening of a new retail store on Dominion Rd in

, and the launch of a new web site. As GP Store grew, the product range gradually expanded to include DVD movies, PC hardware and music. While the e-commerce side of the business went from strength to strength, the retail store in Mt Eden was not so successful. In 2007 the retail store was closed, enabling the company to focus entirely on its e-commerce operations. With the increasingly diverse range of products on offer, a new brand was sought that would fit better with the company's ambitions, and in November 2008, the business was relaunched as Mighty Ape and began selling books and toys. The database and applications running the web site had to be largely redesigned to handle an increase in the number of products sold from some tens of thousands of games to now listing over six million products including games, books, movies, home and office products, toys and collectibles, music, electronics and computers. In early 2011 Mighty Ape launched a new feature called Mighty Ape Marketplace, which allows users to sell second hand items to other customers on the site. The used items appear on Mighty Ape product pages together with items sold by the company, but are shipped from the user selling the item directly to the customer. When a user purchases a Marketplace item, Mighty Ape handles payment processing and holds the money in pseudo-

escrow An escrow is a contractual arrangement in which a third party (the stakeholder or escrow agent) receives and disburses money or property for the primary transacting parties, with the disbursement dependent on conditions agreed to by the transacti ...

until the purchaser confirms they have received the item successfully. This allows Mighty Ape to offer a "Marketplace Safety Guarantee" with a 100% refund under certain conditions. Mighty Ape takes a 9% commission on each sale. In 2013 Mighty Ape launched a new online shopping site specialising in everyday household items. Mighty Mart stocks over 200 items such as bathroom and cleaning products, baby-care products, pet food, drinks, non-perishable food items such as pasta, pasta sauces etc. It offers featured deals which are changed daily. In 2014 Mighty Ape launched its same day delivery service in New Zealand's main centres: Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The company continued to grow at a healthy rate and went on to win the Westpac Supreme Business Excellence Award and Excellence in Customer Service Delivery Award. Mighty Ape launched DHL express shipping to Australia. Mighty Ape's current distribution centre opened in the

Millwater Millwater () is a 1.4 hectare (3.5 acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest at Crewkerne in Somerset, notified in 1989. Millwater consists of a complex mosaic of pasture, wet grassland, tall-herb fen, standing and running water, ald ...

suburb of

Silverdale, Auckland Silverdale is a village approximately 30 km north of Auckland in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on the north bank of the Weiti River and lies to the west of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. State Highway 1 passes to the west o ...

in 2018. In November 2020, Mighty Ape delisted right wing blogger and author Olivia Pierson's book ''Western Values Defended: A Primer'' following her controversial

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

post mocking the newly appointed

Foreign Minister A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...

Nanaia Mahuta Nanaia Cybele Mahuta (born 21 August 1970) is a New Zealand politician who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hauraki-Waikato and serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs (New Zealand), Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Sixth Labour Governm ...

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

face tattoo A face tattoo or facial tattoo is a tattoo located on the bearer's face or head. It is part of the traditional tattoos of many ethnic groups. In modern times, although it is considered taboo and socially unacceptable in many cultures, as well as ...

. Pierson alleged that she was the victim of "

cancel culture Cancel culture, or rarely also known as call-out culture, is a phrase contemporary to the late 2010s and early 2020s used to refer to a form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles—whether it be online, on ...

" while fellow blogger

Cameron Slater Cameron Slater is a right-wing New Zealand-based blogger, best known for his role in ''Dirty Politics'' and publishing the ''Whale Oil Beef Hooked'' blog, which operated from 2005 until it closed in 2019. He edited the tabloid newspaper ''New Ze ...

claimed that Mighty Ape was being hypocritical for stocking books published by

Oswald Mosley Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980) was a British politician during the 1920s and 1930s who rose to fame when, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism. He was a member ...

and

Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 19 ...

. On 2 December 2020, Mighty Ape was acquired by Australian retail and insurance company

for A$122.4 million.

Awards

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official New Zealand websiteOfficial Australian website
Online retailers of New Zealand

History

Awards

See also

References

External links