Competitions, partnerships allow businesses to rise to challenge of coronavirus

Spilt Milk Bar owner Andrew Hamilton said he had been able to boost online sales more than 25 per cent on pre-coronavirus conditions by running a weekly street graffiti competition.

Customers ordering gelato have been encouraged to leave their artwork at the door when their order was delivered - Arkie Prisk recently came out on top and won a tub of gelato.

"It went pretty viral actually," Mr Hamilton said.

"People have been doing up their driveways and it's been kind of fun."

Other businesses have been partnering up.

Mary and Tex Curious Emporium and The Lane Cellars offered a $20 drinks voucher for every $150 spent on homewares online.

Owner Marianne Nagle said it was a way for two independent businesses to support each other.

"It's a way of getting our names out there," she said.

The emporium closed in late March before opening again in mid-April with shorter hours and coronavirus distancing measures in place and Mrs Nagle said it was a stressful period.

"It was pretty diabolical - we're much more of a touch and feel store so we did struggle," she said.

"[The people] you owe money to, they owe money and it's a domino effect."

She said applying for the Job Keeper package to retain the business' staff was a challenge because it changed over time and required a number of days in front of a computer researching and on the phone to the bank.

"We worked harder than we've ever worked in our life," she said.

"[With Job Keeper] you have to pay all the money out an you're reimbursed so you've got to come up with the money and we've done that, but we borrowed money to do it."

But she said being open was worth it, catching up with customers again.

While Big W and Priceline have been trading throughout the pandemic, many shopfronts inside Orange City Centre traded their first weekend since the end of March after reopening at reduced hours on Friday.

The Alley LuJiaoXiang owners Lee Bargwanna and Sasi Sikares had been running a pre-order service for their bubble tea for three weeks.

"Because we were so new we wanted to keep customers established, but we didn't have the foot traffic," Mr Bargwanna said.

Walk-by customers were also able to purchase a smaller selection of teas on the weekend.

They anticipated they would open more fully later this week.

Many larger chains stores also remain closed.