New local marketplace provides tools to find and support the companies in your community

PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The movement to shop locally has been building for the past decade as big box stores and vacant downtown storefronts became more prevalent in communities across the country.

The crash of 2008 and the subsequent bailouts of 'too big to fail' banks and companies only added fuel to the fire as disenfranchised small business owners and their supporters looked for ways to keep smaller companies alive during the cash crunch.

City governments, chambers of commerce and concerned citizens groups developed a new sense of urgency in their campaigns to encourage consumers to spend more of their money with locally owned businesses that have a real stake in the community, instead of with online sites like Amazon, or chain stores that funnel money back to their corporate headquarters.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is the latest group to encourage supporters to look to Main Street as the best way to combat what they see as a growing inequality between those who control the money supply and the workers and entrepreneurs who spend their days chasing dollars.

Everyone agrees that we all need to start shifting our focus and our spending power towards small businesses and local companies, but unfortunately, doing so is not as easy as it should be.

While studies show that consumers are willing to drive farther and spend more to support locally owned businesses, the convenience of one-stop shopping in big box stores and one-click ordering on Amazon is a tough habit to kick.

ShopLocally.com aims to help shoppers break their bond with the mega stores that dominate the retail landscape, and shift their purchases to independent businesses by providing them with a powerful local shopping engine.

The ShopLocally platform features a community marketplace that enables online shoppers to search their community for products and services offered by local merchants.

Just like Amazon, shoppers can add items from a range of merchants to a single cart. Purchasers can pay online with a credit card and have their order delivered, or they can have their order set aside for in-store pickup and payment.

Gift cards that are delivered by email and printed by the recipient or displayed on a smartphone have also proven to be a popular tool.

ShopLocally.com contains listings for several million businesses, and more than 40,000 local independent merchants are active on the site. Hundreds are selling online and there are almost 15,000 items now available for purchase.

To learn more, visit www.shoplocally.com, or www.shopcity.com

Businesses can create a complimentary profile on the site by visiting www.shoplocally.com/add

Did you know?

ShopLocally.com is a local marketplace that helps shoppers find and support the independent businesses in their community.

ShopLocally is the fastest, easiest way to find local products and services, shop online with local businesses and send gift certificates by email.

Questions?

Contact 1-800-939-7706 ext. 1

SOURCE ShopLocally.com

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RELATED LINKS
http://www.shoplocally.com