One Saskatchewan city is putting its money where its jaw — er, mouth — is for helping local businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moose Jaw administrators helped launch a new online marketplace for local sellers Friday, kicking in $10,000 from the city’s economic development fund to help start the online platform.
Dubbed Virtual Moose Jaw Marketplace , it allows shops like Wells Camera & Sound and Firefly Art Jewellery, among others, to market and sell their wares online while offering COVID-safe methods for buyers to get them, like curbside pick-up or drop-off.
“We want to make sure our citizens are investing in our own community and shop the Jaw, you know, shopping local,” said the city’s economic development manger, Jim Dixon.
By midday Monday, 60 businesses had signed up to be listed on the virtual site. Except for a transaction fee, it’s free for a local vendor to sign up and use.
“Systems like this are actually quite expensive and time-consuming to do on your own,” said Chad Wells, the third-generation owner of family-run Wells Camera. “Especially in these times, money is tight. Business owners don’t have the staff to take on an initiative like this all on their own.”
During the province-wide lockdown in March and April, Wells temporarily laid off all four staff members, handling all work at the shop seven days a week.
He praised the online marketplace as a good tool for running promotions while discouraging large gatherings of customers at his shop.
Wells said his store is offering, through the virtual portal, curbside pick-up or same-day drop-off of purchased products at a buyer’s home.
The digital shopping platform differs from corporate behemoths like Amazon, eBay, or Facebook’s Marketplace because it’s self-contained in Moose Jaw, organized and maintained by the city’s Chamber of Commerce.
Transaction fees generated from it stay away from Silicon Valley, going back to the city’s Chamber.
The backend — the digital nuts and bolts behind the site — was built by a local company, Wow Factor Media.
“It’s tougher for the bricks-and-mortar businesses to compete, so yeah that’s part of the story,” Dixon said. “Especially some of these businesses that might not otherwise have had the technical experience and understanding of digital tools.”
To that end, the Chamber hired a technical support person in October, Ryland Wheaton, to help vendors with any issues they may have for using the platform.
Wells said from a retailer’s perspective, being competitive means always offering something better.
“If you were to order on Amazon, the best you could do is for (your order) to arrive in one or two days, via Prime (the company’s subscription-based service).
“With the Moose Jaw Marketplace, I can deliver that afternoon,” he said. “I can have it to them faster, and it’s local.”
Despite the financial fiascos brought by the pandemic, Wells also figures it brought a good dose of invention and necessity.
“This pandemic has created a necessity for an alternate system for what we were doing before,” he said. Even after the pandemic, “the online marketplace, I think that’s going to stay.”
* Evan Radford is the Leader-Post’s reporter under the Local Journalism Initiative.