Virtual storefronts aim to rewire the economy in favor of local businesses

ANDREWS, NC – No local business has the funds to create the technology required to compete with Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Amazon. Yet daily these types of companies are making it harder for people to run their local business. There is a clear need to build an enterprise-level technology that gives local businesses the opportunity to compete in the curbside and virtual shopping markets. This fall, one company with a field office in Andrews, NC is raising $250,000 to create technology that gives local businesses access to a growing market that will never set foot in a store.

Walk-in business is increasingly going virtual. Yet merchant technology companies have failed to build a solution for local merchants that is designed for broad adoption by the non-technical public. Without technology that has a clear path for broad adoption, virtual commerce in local markets risks being dominated entirely by national big-box retailers and Amazon, which will devastate local economies across the country into the future.



An App Built For Connoisseurs Of Local To Find Exactly What They Want JC Christensen, Campaign Director at Virtual Storefronts says providing a Search Directory for a savvy demographic of high-value “Shop Local” fans that connects exclusively to locally-owned businesses, “gives local merchants the unfair advantage they need to compete with multinationals.” All multinational chains are excluded from the platform search.

“We need to democratize access to online cash flow for local merchants whose first priority is customer service and sales, not building and maintaining online inventory and payment portals,” Christensen says. “That’s why we say Virtual Storefronts are ‘rewiring the economy in favor of local businesses’.”



With a goal of collecting 10,000 $25 contributions from Shop Local and sustainability advocates across the country, the campaign itself needs broad appeal to succeed. There’s a long way to go, but Christensen is not discouraged, “We have 17 days after the election for people to realize the most direct solution to our social problems is local. When we ‘Vote For Local’ we become richer for giving, figuratively and literally.”

For more information about the Virtual Storefronts Campaign visit​ ​www.virtualstorefronts.co.

Published October 9, 2020