Hello everyone!

I just wanted to let you know about a new feature that’s coming soon to our software that we’re pretty excited about.

It’s an e-commerce marketplace that we’re calling Shop Local.  And it will allow your levy payers to sell their goods and services to your residents through your digital town hub.

Why are we adding Shop Local to our digital town hub platforms?

Well, we can all agree that online shopping is here to stay.  Every day, local residents in your community are going online to purchase goods from Amazon (and others) that are sitting on the shelves of your local businesses gathering dust.

Why should all of this money be leaking out of your local economy?

Often, residents would like to support their local retailers but it’s not that easy for them to find out what’s available across their high street.   So we’ve built a marketplace to allow trade exclusively within your community, where your sellers can connect directly with your buyers.

Like a mini-Amazon just for your town.

What’s in it for my levy payers?

Put simply, additional sales.

Your businesses can upload as many or as few items as they like onto their digital town hub account.  And they can promote the items to the local population through notifications, geo-alerts and offers.

Unlike social media, all of the people who will see their content are locals.  So we would like to think they have nothing to lose and lots to gain.

What do the businesses have to do?

Each business will have free access to their own Shop Local account through their existing digital town hub account.  Here they will be able to create their offering, add images, stock levels, set pricing, and facilitate click and collect or delivery.

Payments are securely processed through Stripe, and funds are transferred into each Business account upon receipt.  Business owners can see all transactions in their account, including a selection of useful analytics and graphs.  It’s all very intuitive and easy to use.

Does this involve extra work for the Place Manager?

Not really.  It’s just extra support that you’re providing to your businesses, and extra information about your place.  Of course if you ever do need help then the Loqiva team is at your disposal.

Place Managers will have oversight of all e-commerce activity within your Admin account, including sales information, categories of items, buyer engagement, and lots more.  In addition to your existing footfall, activity and business data, you will have unprecedented visibility on everything that’s happening in your place.

And as with all data generated by your digital town hub, you as the Place Manager are the owner of this data.

Is this just an external “plug-in” to your existing technology?

No, we have built the new feature from the ground up to integrate seamlessly into our digital town hubs.

The whole concept of a digital town hub is to have everything local all in one place.  Users already engage with our existing app features like news, events, surveys, notifications, and tours; and all of the content is responsive to their interests and location.

We wanted the Shop Local experience to be as thoughtful and relevant as the rest of the user experience.  So everything you will see was carefully designed by our team to build on the community spirit and local pride that is at the core of the platforms.

If I already like my existing digital town hub the way it is, do I have to adopt Shop Local or can I opt out?

It is completely up to each Place Manager whether you want to activate the e-commerce marketplace capability on your digital town hub or not.  There is no additional charge to use it.

If you do adopt it, then expect us to come looking for your feedback!  As you know, we love suggestions from our partners on how to improve the technology to make sure it meets your needs.  So we’ll be all ears.

When will the new Shop Local feature be ready?

Like any new feature, we will make sure Shop Local works as promised before offering it across all of our installs.  There are always a few wrinkles we need to iron out when taking a new feature live.

We will be launching a beta version in Q4 2024. And, assuming all goes to plan, then we’ll expect to start offering Shop Local to a limited number of customers in Q1 2025.

Why are you telling me now then?

We’re starting to take indications of interest for Shop Local from customers. If you’d like to be part of helping us to launch this feature, let us know!

Our towns and cities have changed so much over the last 10 years.  In some ways, they’ll never be the same.  But different doesn’t have to mean worse.  There’s still a future for thriving high streets full of loyal, local customers.

We have to respond to changing consumer behaviour.  We have to make it easy for our residents to shop local whether they’re walking down the high street or sitting on their couches at home.  In order to achieve this, we need to give our businesses the tools to compete with deep-pocketed multi-national competitors.

So this message is about a new and exciting e-commerce marketplace.  But really it’s about data ownership, and shopping local, and creating a level playing field through technology.  And most importantly, it’s about taking back control of your Place.

I haven’t got a digital town hub and I’d like to know more!

I thought you’d never ask.  We’d love to hear from you to discuss how our technology could work for your place, whether you’re in a tiny village or a major city.  Send us an email to hello@loqiva.com and we’ll get straight back to you.

Also, follow us on LinkedIn for regular updates on our new launches and product features. I’ll be posting again closer to when we’re ready to launch our new Shop Local e-commerce marketplace.