Reasons to set up Shop on ShopBuffalo.com
Even though the media buzz and digital hype of Small Business Saturday has settled, consumers and local business owners have continued their faithful quest to spur the "shop small" movement and keep local dollars in the local economy . In fact, Small Business Saturday appears to be just the beginning of an outpouring of purchasing pride for Western New York. After the quasi-holday passed, small business based shopping festivals like the Hertel Avenue Holiday Shopping Weekend and the Niagara Holiday Market received more notoriety, drawing significant regional crowds and proving Western New York residents remain loyal to local businesses that keep their doors open despite an imperfect economic landscape.
With the help of ShopBuffalo.com, small businesses can help consumers similarily show their local support from the comfort of their own home. As the holiday gift-giving season approaches and beyond, the Amherst Chamber of Commerce's endorsed product partner, ShopBuffalo, continues to enable an easy e-commerce flow between the region's businesses and consumers.
ShopBuffalo.com does more than provide an online platform for local merchants. The site is about getting noticed by the people most likely to patronize the products and services of local businesses - local consumers. Essentially, ShopBuffalo.com offers a digital space for the region's businesses and buyers to connect in today's complicated world of online shopping.
The process is simple. Local businesses on ShopBuffalo.com enjoy a visibility system that rewards content creation instead of keyword manipulation and the jumble of other factors that determine search engine rankings. Larger corporations nab the top slots on popular search engines and shopping sites because of access to advertising dollars and internet expertise. ShopBuffalo.com is different. Merchants who update their profiles with content like news, events, product information and multimedia more frequently, appear highest and more often on the site's newsfeed and rankings. In other words, participating businesses exercise complete autonomy over their ability to get noticed by the site's online shoppers.
"It's all about who is willing to do more for their business," said Michael Gallo, sales manager at ShopBuffalo.com. "The more activity you have on your page, the more you appear on this site."
Fortunately for business owners, the ShopBuffalo.com format is a one-stop-shop for managing online presence and creating online content. Learning how to use it takes minimal effort, time and technological know-how.
The Features
Virtual Storefront: Much like Facebook and other social media destinations, the first step to building a ShopBuffalo account is setting up a profile for your business. This includes posting information about the business, uploading photos and listing location, contact information and hours of operation.
E-Commerce: Once the basics are complete, merchants who chose to sell products or services on the site need only a PayPal account to sell their products or services directly on the site. ShopBuffalo doesn't take any cut of the profits, and businesses are only subject to the credit card transaction processing fees. Merchants determine delivery methods and can even opt for in-store pickup. They can create discounts, coupons and gift certificates. The gift card feature is particularly useful for restaurants and service-related businesses that want to generate a monetary return online.
Social Media and Website Management: One of the most convenient features on the ShopBuffalo site is the online management tool. Merchants can link existing Facebook and Twitter accounts to their profile. With just a single panel, users can choose to click on the respective social media icons, enabling any update posted to ShopBuffalo to populate on their Facebook and Twitter profiles. If merchants already have a website, they can similarly link it to their ShopBuffalo profile. As a result, all updates made to a ShopBuffalo profile would also be made to the corresponding website.
E-Communications and Publicity: ShopBuffalo provides a built-in e-mail marketing system, so businesses can keep their loyal customers in the loop with news, promotions and events. Depending on the membership package, merchants can upload anywhere from 25 to an unlimited amount of subscribers to their customer list. In addition to keeping in contact with current consumers, businesses can attract potential ones by submitting press releases to ShopBuffalo. The site maintains a list of local media contacts for the use of its members to send out news of new product launches, company announcements and upcoming events and promotions.
ShopBuffalo.com is designed to create a local e-commerce community. It's like a digital shopping plaza. Similar to a brick-and-mortar plaza it's success depends on the collective success and engagement of its tenants. ShopBuffalo is designed to rank high on Google and other search engine results. Through marketing efforts, the company has become more popular among local consumers. However, as more merchants continue to build a presence on the site it will become increasingly more visible. So, if you are interested in growing your local business in the local economy or if you are looking to buy local, ShopBuffalo!
In case the aforementioned benefits weren't enough, businesses in the Amherst Chamber of Commerce receive 10 percent off any ShopBuffalo package as a member-to-member discount. Interested business owners should contact Michael Gallo today, and set up shop on ShopBuffalo.com before the holiday season is over!
350 Essjay Road, Suite 200 