Some Sunday morning thoughts on #shoplocal.

I love the websites popping up to support local. (I used one last week to discover a home-based business that I bought from). However, I think they are preaching to the choir.

This is not meant to be a criticism, but many of the sites are simply an online business listing, something we’ve had on the internet since the 90s.

If the goal is to convert users from Amazon to shop local, it will take more than a business listing and a hashtag. IMO, the solution has at least 2 requirements.

The first is a single shopping cart for the user, regardless of product category or store origin. As soon as the shopper needs to visit a second web store front, you’ve lost them.

The second is delivery to the door. A distributed regional logistics network is essential. It may already exist, I don’t know. But I know it needs to emulate the skip-the-dishes/uber/amazon delivery model.

The shopper doesn’t care if the order comes as 1 delivery, or 5. It just needs to be triggered by one SHIP IT button. One monopolized local structure that contains those 2 requirements is the skeleton for the local business body to compete with the amazons.

This is from the perspective of a consumer, not a business owner, so let me know if I’m out to lunch. I want to learn.