Lori Giuttari says the Shop Local Rhode Island Directory began as a side project of her full-time business Visual Thrive, a media and marketing agency that she co-owns with Scott InDermaur.
This side project – a new online marketplace for Rhode Island makers and other vendors – has come with its share of technical challenges, but it’s a new platform to showcase the state.
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Giuttari wants more vendors to realize this digital marketing opportunity and sponsors to see the value in keeping money right here at home.
PBN: How does Visual Thrive tie in to the Shop Local Rhode Island Directory initiative?
GIUTTARI: We created Visual Thrive in 2017 after Scott attended the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program at Community College of Rhode Island.
We wanted to work through a new line of business that would profitably deliver the same high-quality media, marketing and communications specifically for small and medium businesses. Our tag line is: “Marketing for Main Street Growth” and we wholeheartedly believe that that area of growth is critical for our communities.
In March 2020, we were working fast and furiously to write communications for our clients because their business operations were changing so rapidly and they needed to maintain some level of sales revenue. Small businesses make up 98% of Rhode Island’s business revenue, and we knew there must be many businesses that didn’t have the option of calling their marketing agency and having them send out communications.
We created the Shop Local Rhode Island platform for them. The site gave any business that signed on its own digital footprint to update – every day, if they choose to – with the option of adding photos and using the URL to send out anywhere. The site is searchable by location, or you can type in a search term.
Today, that Visual Thrive “side project” holds 2,000-plus Rhode Island businesses, and in August 2021 we expanded Shop Local Rhode Island into a true revenue generation model for small business. In Shop Local’s first two weeks of expansion, the marketplace held about 200 products. It’s become an entirely separate line of business for our team.
PBN: What were a few of the challenges you had in setting up the site and getting it up and running?
GIUTTARI: The biggest challenge involved our own commitment to bring along the 2,000-plus businesses that had already signed up on the Shop Local Rhode Island Directory. We also wanted to give the Shop Local members a “Freemium Offer” – the opportunity to upload five products for free. With … [R.I. Commerce Corp.’s] support, we were able to pull that off.
The directory alone didn’t have the marketplace capabilities we wanted, so we needed to find a marketplace developer willing to take on a directory component – within a price range that we could invest in. The proposals we received ranged from $10,000 to $150,000, and we ended up somewhere in the middle. Once we found a vendor willing to work with us, we needed to customize large segments of both entities and be sure our IP [internet protocol] and legal terms were tight.
As any software developer knows, bringing two relatively stable (and large) programs together and making them play nice together is not as easy as it sounds, not to mention the back-end and front-end work involved to make it look good and run smoothly. We are still putting the finishing touches on the site’s capabilities, and we’re focused on easing the onboarding process for Rhode Island vendors. We’re making great strides, and we know this doesn’t really ever end.
After our beta testing period in July, we realized that the shipping options weren’t working well. Again, it was a holdover based on our commitment to serve the directory members. It’s one of those situations where you need to take every piece apart and then put it back together again into a new configuration.
PBN: What are a few features that the Shop Local Rhode Island Directory plans to add?
GIUTTARI: First, we want to create a community events calendar solely focused on small-business revenue activities. We are creating community-focused segments based upon the vendors on our site, located on “Main Street” – I think we all have similar images when it comes to our Main Street areas in Rhode Island. I’d love to create Main Street Market events where we get local vendors to create a Sale Day – 15% off everything, for example.
We have a ton of ideas. The site has an RI Thrives section. That’s our full production video team at its finest. We want to tell stories about what happens when businesses are flexible within their own business models. We’ve learned that when it comes to staying alive, businesses maneuver like crazy. We want to continue that effort with our sponsorships. Our goal is to showcase how important it is that the businesses who employ over 55% of Rhode Island employees need attention.
We want to partner with our nonprofits and allow shoppers to donate that extra dollar or two to their favorite local causes. That option is in our pipeline. Each month we will highlight special business segments. This month it’s back-to-school supplies and extracurricular activities.
Businesses owned by LGBTQ, Black, women, minority, veteran and other groups cannot be considered secondary. We need to stop that.
Everything we need is right here. Visual Thrive wants businesses to understand how to make money and how to use and capitalize upon digital capabilities.
PBN: The site features Rhode Island metal and wood craftspeople, as well as food makers such as coffee producers and makers of nut butters and soy candles. What else will site visitors find?
GIUTTARI: That is the heart and soul of our site … and of Rhode Island. If you think about it, for almost a century Rhode Island was able to deliver well-paying, goods-producing jobs in the textile and jewelry industries. It meant we were a state filled with successful entrepreneurs, employing lots of people who had money to spend. We have a deep history of creating things.
The Made in RI pages are always at the top when it comes to analytics. Companies like Aft Helm, which makes nautical wood crafts, and Wreath Obsessed, which makes every kind of gorgeous wreath you could imagine, are both selling their wares on the site. Reinberger Nut Butters, out of Hope & Main in Warren, is selling some yummy stuff. There’s also Oatsy Anya with luxurious organic soap products, and Lapel Pin Planet with very cool lapel pins and key rings.
PBN: What’s needed most in this phase to keep this business model afloat?
GIUTTARI: This business model is designed so that we use our media and marketing skills to support and expand business opportunities. If businesses take the time to get on the site, they’ll have a marketing team behind them. We believe that the larger firms, banks and organizations that service these smaller businesses now have a way to support their own clients through this avenue.
What we need most is sponsorships. We’ve done a tremendous amount of work for free. I told my team to send me away the next time I come up with a “great idea!”
It’s not your average business model because the sponsors will get to call the shots regarding what they want or need from a marketing perspective. But we’ve already been contacted by other areas in the United States to create this type of model and we can’t deny that shopping local is becoming more and more highly valued.
Susan Shalhoub is a PBN contributing writer.
