Small businesses are the heart and soul of our local communities and economies.

Though having very little resources, these entrepreneurs build businesses with ingenious ideas, utilizing high quality materials, that are overrun by cheap counterfeits or oligopolistic (large players controlling the distribution in e-commerce) market competition. The fact remains that small businesses still drive nearly 44% of economic activity in the United States of America and employ 48% of our labor force¹. The problem is, these numbers used to be much higher, but as we continue to globalize, small businesses are left behind. History tells us that globalization and trade negotiations have never been kind to small businesses or consumers. More often than not, the beneficiaries are large conglomerates with international supply chains.

Various studies show that every $100 spent on local businesses generates $68 in local economic activity, whereas the same $100 spent on non-local businesses generates only $43; that’s 58% more potential for our local communities! What does this mean for Americans? It means more jobs, better infrastructure, better socioeconomic conditions, etc. which, in turn, translates to much more.

If every US family spent just $10 a month at a locally owned business instead of a chain, $9.3bn would be returned directly to our economy². This has been the case for in-store shopping but as the world continues to digitize, we have to ensure these businesses are not left behind, simply due to the fact that they didn’t have enough money to spend on building their online presence.

We hope that through our journey to cultivate local economies, we realize greater benefits to socioeconomic conditions, which lead to unprecedented improvements in living and working conditions for us and generations to come. Thank you for choosing to take this ride with us. Stay tuned for exciting updates and features we’re adding to the platform.