ShopLocal North Yorkshire

Background•Bedale & District Chamber of Trade & Tourism

•ShopLocal North Shropshire

•What we set out to achieve & Business Model

•Business Link & Business Plan

•Funding Applications (HDC, RDC, NYCC & YorkshireForward)

•Website & Branding

•Set-up including professional software to manage accounts and member and cardholder databases

Project Model•Member Product Offerings:

MEMBERSHIP 2009 £65&VAT inc.10 Cards

Card sales revenue

Advertising (print & website)

Cardholder database access

Ambassador scheme

•Cardholder Product Offerings:

LOYALTY CARD £2.50inc.VAT for lifetime of Card

Discounts/special offers

Intangible benefits

Early Stages•Bedale First XI & Darlington & Stockton Times sponsorship

•Key business owners joined (greengrocers, hardware, Post Office)

•Further media interest

•Cardholder questionnaire

Halcyon Days!•Rapid growth into other local Market Towns (Masham, Leyburn, Northallerton, Thirsk, Hawes, Muker, Richmond, Pateley Bridge)

•Part-time employment provided for 3 more people

•Attendance at local shows and fairs, talks at Business Associations and press releases

•48,000 household leaflet drop

•Competitions and Christmas Fair

Current Position •190 business members and nearly 10,000 cardholders

•What has actually been achieved from a business perspective? (Financial, media links, goodwill, opportunities to widen services)

•What has been achieved from a Member perspective? (Questionnaire, slight reported increase in sales by some, possible resign rate)

•What has been achieved from a Cardholder perspective? (Questionnaire, firming up of discount/offer rules)

The Good…. •Centralised voice for local independent businesses with local press, district councils etc

•Meeting people and acting as a link between businesses; great welcomes from business owners

•Viewed as a positive scheme against a largely negative background of recession

•Motivation from good member and card sales in 2009

•Keep own hours and manage own diary

•Positive feedback and anecdotes from members and cardholders

The Bad…. •Apathy

•Over-expectations of members resulting in disappointment

•Current customers taking advantage of offers resulting in overall cut in bottom line

•Flexible and differing offers can be confusing or disappointing for cardholders – those less able to give straight % viewed as ‘mean’

•Some hostility from business owners when ‘cold-calling’

•Success of scheme leads to huge amount of work that has to be undertaken evenings/weekends to keep up

The Ugly…. •Occasional abuse from members and cardholders

•Abuse of offers by cardholders

•Non-payment of membership fees/invoices

The Future of ShopLocal (NY) •Strategic expansion of scheme into more North Yorkshire Market Towns throughout 2010

•Membership fee 2010 is £75 inc. VAT

•Re-branding

•Increased media profile

•Wider marketing services (e-casting, websites and mystery shopper experiences)

•Improved POS materials

•Consultancy services for people setting-up and managing schemes throughout UK

What would we have done differently?

•Largely ignored advice of Business Link?

•Managed expectations more conservatively?

•Made cards more expensive and membership free but with straight % offerings?

•Made initial membership payments by cash or cheque only?

•Saturated the local press with press releases, news etc?

•Maximised the potential of the website more?