Announcing ShopMainStreet.org – A national directory of Main Street businesses that have an online retail component

Please pass this on to Montana businesses. It would be great to get some Montana businesses involved in this project. Have an enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend.

Mel

Mel Walters, Coordinator

Montana Main Street

Small Business Development Center

Montana Department of Commerce

406-841-2756 (W)

406-461-6801 (C)

[email protected]

Fax: 406-841-2728

We will be launching a new pilot initiative ShopMainStreet.org very soon! This new site will be – whether full-fledgeda national directory of Main Street businesses that have an online retail component e-commerce or simply an online catalog – and will allow visitors throughout the country to find the unique and interesting shops that make Main Streets great. It is designed to make listing a business quick and easy – both for the local manager and for the business owner. In five minutes, a local business can use our site to list their business and product lines. Then, online shoppers will be able to access their business through links.

Please know that this is very much a trial version. We are trying to get a simple version up and running this season to see what we can learn from the experience and so that we can have a much better version ready by next year. Ideally, we would have had this site up and ready for business on the first of November. We apologize for the late notice. We know that most of you are up to your eyeballs in holiday promotions right now. We had anticipated that it would be ready today for you to check out and to start adding businesses. However, we have encountered some minor last minute technical difficulties and we are working them out now.

We still believe, however, that we can get the site up and announce it this weekend in an effort to tag onto the Black Friday – Holiday shopping craziness.

What we need from you are some good e-commerce businesses to populate the directory with.

If you have a businesses in your district that have strong e-commerce components please notify us with a quick email and we will list them for you. The business either needs to offer the ability to shop online or at least has to have products listed online that people can order via phone, fax, or email. The business must be located in a district served by a Main Street program, a Main Street Network Member organization, or another downtown/neighborhood revitalization organization. This is free, there is no cost associated with this listing.

We need to know your organization name, the business name, the business web site, a contact email for the business, a description of the store (255 character limit), and the category of store (i.e. sporting good, apparel, hobby, gift, etc.). Please email this information or questions to [email protected] with the subject heading ShopMainStreet.org

In a couple days you will be able to add businesses yourself through a web application and we will be sending further instructions on how to do that. In the mean time, we really need to populate the database with a critical mass of businesses.

Thank you in advance for your help with this especially in this busy time of year. We are really excited about this initiative and hope that it will lead to great things.

Luke VanBelleghem | Program Associate | National Trust Main Street Center | Phone: (202) 588-6231 | http://www.mainstreet.org