Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand: Transforming Early Education with StoreConnect

Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand (ECNZ) has long been at the forefront of shaping early childhood education, ensuring that every child’s potential is ignited.

Looking to always bring the highest value to their members and customers, Te Rito Maioha undertook to upgrade their online offering to provide a true seamless digital experience. With their mission to inspire, empower and educate teachers and learners, embracing cultures and languages to ensure every child’s potential is ignited — they recognized the need to elevate their online presence and had experienced significant challenges with their existing software solution.

With the help of StoreConnect commerce, built on the Salesforce platform, Te Rito Maioha has now transformed its operations, creating a more efficient, user-friendly, and impactful online presence and member experience.

The Vision Behind the Transformation

One of Aotearoa New Zealand’s top tertiary education providers, Te Rito Maioha is a bicultural organisation committed to advocacy, teaching, and the delivery of world-class early childhood education.

Te Rito Maioha offers a comprehensive range of educational programmes tailored for those interested in early childhood and primary education — from professional workplace development to diplomas, undergraduate degrees, graduate diplomas, postgraduate and master’s degrees. Their programmes integrate online learning with practical experience, reflecting a deep commitment to bicultural practice and flexible study options.

Their purpose (“Tō tātou kaupapa”)¹ focuses on inspiring, empowering and educating teachers and learners, embracing cultures and languages to ensure every child’s potential is ignited, while their commitment (“Te Pae Tata”)² centres on the delivery of world-class teacher education for tamariki³, whānau⁴, kaiako⁵, ECE services and schools.

When Te Rito Maioha’s outdated online storefront began hindering their ability to communicate this mission effectively, they turned to StoreConnect commerce to solve their problems.

As an existing Salesforce user, Te Rito Maioha’s Salesforce implementation partner, GravityLab, helped them evaluate all possible solutions. StoreConnect met the majority of functionality needed straight out of the box, at a highly competitive price.

A key bonus was that StoreConnect is built on Salesforce, meaning Te Rito Maioha could capitalise on their existing Salesforce investment without going off-platform to third-party suppliers.

Key features implemented include:

• Different price books for standard and membership pricing
• Restricted product access based on membership levels
• Event management for both face-to-face and virtual events
• Customised themes reflecting Te Rito Maioha’s brand

Challenge #1: An Outdated, Inflexible Storefront

Te Rito Maioha’s previous website platform lacked customisation and failed to represent their brand identity. The layout was inconsistent, and users struggled to find essential information.

The StoreConnect Solution

It didn’t take long for the management team to realise that StoreConnect offered a comprehensive out-of-the-box solution — the one they had been searching for.

Results

• A website that mirrors the organisation’s values and brand identity
• Enhanced user experience with clear, organised information
• Customers can now find what they need with ease, significantly reducing support queries
• All website content is managed within Salesforce — no separate login required

“Our purpose and values are the first thing you see on the homepage. The imagery reflects what we do. We can now display more information in a clear, clean, consistent, and succinct way, not only saving our customer’s time but also our internal team.”

— Alissa Monty, Marketing Advisor, Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand

“The experience when booking and paying for PLD and purchasing physical products (books) has been improved.”

— Alissa Monty, Marketing Advisor, Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand

Challenge #2: Frustrating Application Processes

Previously, prospective students and members frequently struggled to find the “Apply Now” button, leading to numerous inquiries and a poor user experience.

The StoreConnect Solution

With StoreConnect, Te Rito Maioha implemented a pinned navigation bar, ensuring key actions like “Apply Now” are always accessible at the top of any page.

Results

• Seamless navigation that empowers users to apply quickly
• A streamlined experience, reducing frustration for users and staff

“My aim was to have everything available to our users in 5 clicks. With StoreConnect that goal was achieved. In our recent member survey (November–December 2024), 63% indicated that it is easy to find information on our new website with 30% indicating it was very easy.”

— Alissa Monty, Marketing Advisor, Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand

Challenge #3: Complex Membership Management

Managing memberships and pulling reports were cumbersome tasks on the old platform. The backend interface was complicated, leading to inefficiencies and frustration among staff.

“If someone made a purchase, our team had to go off and find more information. It was so hard. The user interface was so unfriendly in the back end. Our membership advisor has seen efficiencies.”

— Alissa Monty, Marketing Advisor, Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand

The StoreConnect Solution

Built on Salesforce, StoreConnect provided an intuitive interface for managing memberships, subscriptions, and reports — directly from the Salesforce org, in real time, with single sign-on via Experience Cloud.

Results

• Streamlined membership management with reduced manual work
• Positive staff feedback on the intuitive system
• Customisations including different price books and benefit tracking

“Our team can now pull reports effortlessly. The frustration is gone, and positivity has replaced it, with praise of the new system.”

— Alissa Monty, Marketing Advisor, Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand

Additional Benefits and Future Opportunities

• Rapid Landing Page Creation – Pages that once took a day now take minutes
• Reduced Dependency on Third-Party Tools – Everything lives in Salesforce with a single source of truth
• Continuous Learning – The StoreConnect Academy provides ongoing training and support

“Having the StoreConnect Academy back you up, wherever you are, is invaluable. It’s user-friendly, interactive, and fun.”

— Alissa Monty, Marketing Advisor, Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand

“StoreConnect is a bit of a beast in terms of functionality, and we haven’t even scratched the surface yet.”

— Alissa Monty, Marketing Advisor, Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand

Partner Collaboration: Building a Customised Solution

Te Rito Maioha’s Salesforce implementation partner, GravityLab, handled the full StoreConnect implementation.

“StoreConnect worked by providing a completely new storefront, with subscription management capabilities and the ability to authenticate via the Salesforce Community. This then goes back to StoreConnect straight away and allows different pricing options with different price books.”

— Jarrod Siebert, Senior Salesforce Consultant, GravityLab

“StoreConnect met the majority of functionality straight out of the box. We then customised the memberships section and built a benefit component that tracks usage and purchases. We also customised the theme with help from the StoreConnect team.”

— Jarrod Siebert, Senior Salesforce Consultant, GravityLab

“We are spending our time focusing on helping them use the product to its fullest extent.”

— Daniel Howell, CEO, GravityLab

The Impact

Te Rito Maioha’s digital transformation with StoreConnect has revolutionised their operations and user experience. By aligning technology with their mission, they are now better equipped to support tamariki, whānau, and kaiako across Aotearoa New Zealand.

With StoreConnect and Salesforce, Te Rito Maioha has set a strong foundation for the future of education in New Zealand.