Supporting community with the creation of the “Amazon of Small Businesses”

As a small business, our geeky & creative team is 100% behind doing whatever we can to support other small businesses during these difficult and uncertain times.

In March 2020, we developed a mix of online tools and directory sites using WordPress & Woo Commerce to support local businesses in their efforts to feature their curbside services and/or delivery during lockdown.

We’re thrilled to now offer this service and set of features to any/all communities looking to take local promotion and online shopping to the next level.


A FANTASTIC way to rally behind local business.

– Tracy Qualmann, Director of Marketing and Communication, Envision Greater Fond du Lac

The “Amazon of Small Businesses”

Recently, Main Street WI – one of the sites wisnet supported launching with the WEDC in May 2020 –  received news coverage as the “Amazon of Small Businesses” to encourage shopping local and small over the holiday season.

Check out this Channel3000 feature on the ‘Amazon’ of small businesses in Wisconsin >

Bring “Shop Local” to life online in your community

  • Create a community “shop local” site that drives social sharing AND supports traffic to local business websites.
  • Make holiday shopping safe & convenient with online gift card purchase and delivery options.
  • Put dollars back into the community and create a message of unity & hope to end the year.

How it can work:

Contact our team to review the options and see how this community shopping tool can support your local, small businesses.

Options include:

  • Creating one storefront to collect orders for the small business(es) listed. Examples: https://anniescafe.order-out.com; http://silvercryst.order-out.com/
  • Highlighting a collective of businesses with filtering by category/offering, order options of curbside or pickup, community, and more. Not only can you drive traffic directly to the small businesses websites to shop, you can also highlight the varous ways order directly through other sources like Grubhub, Doordash, EatStreet, and more.
    Examples: https://www.mainstreetwi.com/; https://fdl.order-out.com/
  • Combine the best of both worlds! Showcase the diverse offerings of your small business collective while also offering direct support through giftcard purchases* within your site. Example: https://www.deperedowntown.org/

These online ordering tools can work for single businesses, larger collective organizations or associations, communities, and statewide.

See more examples here ›