St. Pete Beach, July 28, 2020 — The leadership of the City of St. Pete Beach is pleased to announce a new partnership with LocalShops1 aimed at providing recovery assistance to local businesses. By facilitating a free opportunity for business owners to grow their online business through buylocaltampabay.com, a website that lists goods and services by local artists, makers, and locally-owned businesses throughout the Tampa Bay region.
The partnership will be kicked-off at a business presentation on August 12th, 2020 that will be held via zoom. All local St. Pete Beach businesses are welcome to attend to learn more about this free opportunity.
LocalShops1 launched buylocaltampabay.com in mid-April, during the coronavirus pandemic, with the support of WannaGo St. Pete. LocalShops1 does not charge listing fees and it does not take cuts from sales. Payment goes directly to the sellers.
“Online sales are extremely important to business growth, especially during this pandemic when in-person purchases can be limited. But many of our local businesses lack the know-how, staff, resources, or time to bring their businesses online through e-commerce. Buylocaltampabay.com has afforded us the opportunity to help our local businesses by giving them an online marketplace and exposure to a quickly-growing audience for free! We are thrilled to partner with Ester Venouziou and LocalShops1. We know our business owners will share our sentiments over this incredible opportunity for growth.” Jennifer McMahon, City of St. Pete Beach Director.
Ester Venouziou of LocalShops1 added, “Small local businesses have difficulties competing online even when they have the resources. With buylocaltampabay.com, we not only help them with an online marketplace but we also bring a large audience to them to make sure their goods and services get noticed. This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for us to bring the vibrant goods and services of our beaches to a larger audience.”
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About LocalShops1
LocalShops1 is a coalition of hundreds of independently-owned businesses and tens of thousands of shoppers with the mission of advocating, promoting, and offering support services to companies throughout Tampa Bay. Founded in August 2008, LocalShops1 is one of the region’s most active voices for small businesses.