To create an instant store (or community) page, click the camera icon above, or get the app and:
Mark, Indie Business Owner
Main and Me is the easiest way I've found yet to make sure online shoppers can find what I sell. lt's free and easy to showcase photos of everything I carry, and new and loyal customers can follow my store to keep on top of what's hot and what's new. Starting my store page was simple and fast: I just used the app to SNAP, CAPTION, and CHECK IN a photo. Two hours later; photos and descriptions of everything l sell were online, ready to compete for eyeballs with the national chains that dominate online shopping.
But my favorite part is that it's no longer "every man for himself" when it comes to promoting my store online. Our Downtown Director got all the merchants in town to start free Main and Me store pages, so now web and mobile shoppers can windowshop our downtown shopping district as a whole, and on a store-by-store basis. It has really made folks aware of all the
great stuff for sale downtown."
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I'm committed to supporting local businesses,
but I can't deny it : l love to shop on the intemet.
Now, with Main and Me I can type "little black dress" into the search field and see if there's something in town that I can try on immediately without the need to wait for shipping. It's all the convenience of online shopping and all the benefits of supporting LOCAL Get Started!
Rebecca, Online Shopper
I used to panic before birthdays,
Valentine's Days and other gift giving
occasions. Now I go to my
friend’s Main and Me wish list and get her the things she wants from
the local stores she loves.
I have
gone from heel to hero, and all
because of Main and Me wish lists.
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Chuck, Good Guy
Linda, Executive Director
Getting my members to agree to a downtown promotional plan is like herding cats. But Main and Me is different. The basic service is free (to upload as many products and services as you wish)--for life--so I had everything to gain and nothing to lose by trying. Within a day I had started store pages for 60 of our member businesses. At our meeting 2 days later I presented my members with our automatically-generated community page and showed them how online shoppers could use their iPhones, iPad and computers to either windowshop the whole town, or explore on a store-by-store basis. No more “every man for himself” having to drive traffic to his website. Just five volunteers put our 75 member businesses online in a single day. By the following week, our merchants had uploaded an additional 10,000 photos. Now online shoppers can see what’s for sale in our downtown stores, and make 100% local-supportive wish lists and registries out of the things they love.”
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Founders Mary Pat and James Akers love the independent businesses that support America's small town main streets and funky urban neighborhoods. In fact, they raised their children in three such places: Long Island City, NY; Summit, N] and Great Barrington, MA, (a place Smithsonian magazine recently named one of the "10 Best Small Towns in America.") Each time they got involved with supporting the downtown business districts of their adopted communities, they became aware of three things:
l. That healthy, local businesses are not only essential for the service and convenience they provide, but are integral to the support of area non-profits from Little League teams and libraries to high school musicals and hospitals;
2.That these same local businesses lack the time, money and technical know-how to compete on the internet with malls, big box stores and online retail giants;
3.That a mere 10% shift in purchasing behavior from the internet back to Main Street will help sustain these businesses and the communities they serve.
Main and Me was created to help these local businesses address a simple disconnect : the world now shops visually online, yet fewer than 10% of local businesses showcase photos of what they sell online. As a result, even shoppers who would prefer to support their own Main Street businesses are unable to discover local sources for the products they research online. Main and Me taps into the trend of mobile photo-sharing to allow shoppers to easily discover what's for sale in the local, independent stores around them. ..wherever they are, whenever they want. As shoppers share photos, make lists and follow their favorite stores and communities, a portion of online shopping is shifted back to the neighborhood
businesses our communities depend upon.
Main and Me is dedicated to leveling the playing field on which LOCAL independent stores compete with malls, big box stores and Big Internet Shopping, by helping them make their inventory "discoverable" online.