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Shop253 supports Pierce County brands

Shop for goods and services online from independent business in Pierce County

Patricia Lecy Davis, Angela Jossy, CEO of Shop253.com, Chaitra Vedullapalli and Shirley Eclipse discussed Shop 253 at the William Factory Small Business Incubator in Tacoma, Nov. 11. Photo credit: Davies Chiruva

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The holiday shopping season has likely already started for many, but really kicks into high gear with the rapidly approaching Black Friday, followed closely by Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. While Small Business Saturday has made a point of sticking up for local businesses, there's still a heavy focus on big box stores and major retailers.

Shopping local is superior. It creates jobs and circulates money within our community. And yet, shopping local has traditionally lacked in the convenience factor. After all, you can't usually one-stop shop like you do at the mall or on Amazon. But this year, you can! This year, Tacoma mover and shaker Angela Jossy is taking back Cyber Monday and granting all your one-stop shopping dreams with her latest venture - Shop253.

Shop253.com is an online marketplace that Jossy hopes will become Tacoma's own Amazon.com - an online mall filled with exclusively online retailers. Previously, local shoppers have either had to visit a store or hop around to many websites only to find that many local shops don't have an online storefront set up. No longer. Shop253 simplifies setting up shop online for retailers and makes shopping online super simple for shoppers.

Already there are more than 71 businesses on Shop253. Jossy hopes to have more than 200 by Cyber Monday. Businesses include local stores, but also local services, art and digital downloads of local music or ebooks by local authors.

"Shopping local just makes you feel good. If you buy a gift for a loved one from a local business it also becomes a gift for our local economy," says Jossy. "Supporting local means creating jobs; it means keeping our town unique; it means keeping more money circulating locally; it means keeping that cute little shop you love from closing because they couldn't compete with Walmart; it means keeping our best talent here in town instead of losing them to bigger cities. It just affects everything about Tacoma, if you think about it."

Shop by categories and browse to check out if your favorite local retailer is on the site - or discover new businesses you may never have come across. Beyond browsing, there's a search feature so you can quickly find out which stores sell what you're looking for. If you'd like to shop from one particular retailer, you can type that retailer's name into the search box and the items they have to sell on the site will magically pop up. Some retailers also offer gift certificates.

While you might shop from several different businesses, all your items will go into one handy dandy shopping cart, just like they would on Amazon. However, because you're actually shopping from different stores, shipping charges cannot be combined across stores - so the shipping amount you see will reflect what each unique business has set up for shipping. Local pick-up options are also available.

"If we as individuals change just ten percent of our spending from chains to local businesses, that would cause a huge chain reaction. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, they did a campaign and individuals in that city redirected ten percent of their total spending from chains to locally-owned businesses and it resulted in $140 million in new economic activity for the region, including 1,600 new jobs and $53 million in additional payroll. That's major change from a minor adjustment."

If you're a retailer who wants to sell via Shop253, it's free to do and Shop253 only takes 10 percent when something sells. Click on "Sell with Us" on the website and apply for your own online store. To qualify, shops must be in Pierce County and/or within area code 253.

Jossy has also partnered with GoLocal's "Shift Your Shopping" campaign. As part of this, there's going to be a bus tour Nov. 29, Small Business Saturday, that will visit some of the best places in Pierce County to find local holiday gifts. For more information, go to www.duchessofdowntowntours.com or www.facebook.com/TacomaARTBUS.

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