Mississauga Joins Digital Main Street’s ShopHERE Powered by Google Program to Help Small Businesses Get Online for Free

To help support our local small businesses, Mississauga is proud to announce it will be joining the ShopHERE, powered by Google program. The program will provide independent businesses and artists with resources to develop and launch an online store at no-cost, with the support of local post-secondary students.

“The vast majority of businesses in our city are small businesses and their survival will be key in our efforts to reignite the economy. COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of e-commerce and having a digital presence, especially for our local independent businesses,” said Mayor Bonnie Crombie. “This program comes at a critical time in our efforts to help our small business community recover from this crisis. We encourage people to buy local and this program will provide consumers with even more options to do so. I want to thank Digital Main Street, Google Shopify, Mastercard, Microsoft, and Magnet for providing this program and encourage all eligible businesses to apply.”

Launched originally on May 12, 2020 for the Toronto business community, Digital Main Street is now working with Google to expand ShopHERE powered by Google across Canada with a goal of building 50,000 online stores by the end of 2020.

The City of Mississauga will leverage the infrastructure created by the City of Toronto with Digital Main Street and will cover a portion of the student costs to get the program running. As part of the program, local students will be trained to build and launch online stores.

Local businesses and artists can apply for the program at digitalmainstreet.ca/shophere to get their online store built at no-cost.

The program will provide independent businesses and artists with:

• Their choice of an online store customized with their information, branding, logo etc.
• Hands-on assistance setting up and launching their online store
• Training to support their online store, including topics such as digital marketing, shipping and inventory management
• Access to free tools to help support the launch of their online stores

The ShopHERE powered by Google program is open to businesses and artists providing they are a registered business, have a commercial or home-based location, have fewer than 10 employees or fewer than 25 employees if a restaurant or bar and they are not a corporate chain or franchise.

“We have heard first hand through round table discussions with local businesses about the impacts COVID-19 has had on our small business community. We remain committed to offering support and solutions to address the hardships of our local businesses,” said Bonnie Brown, Director, Economic Development. “In addition to joining ShopHERE powered by Google program, our Economic Development Office has assembled a dedicated team of business advisors that provide one-on-one support and guidance to entrepreneurs and business owners and help identify digital solutions that best meet their needs.”

Information about provincial and federal supports for businesses can be found at thefutureisunlimited.ca/covid-19.

To find out more about Digital Main Street’s ShopHERE powered by Google program, visit: digitalmainstreet.ca/shophere.

Tags

• Economic Development