Website creates online marketplace for Fairfield County shops
Buying natural soap from Organachs in Westport, a necklace from Wave on Elm in New Canaan and a jacket from Indigo Jane Boutique in Newtown used to mean a lot of driving or several online transactions.
But a couple is looking to change that with the launch of fairfieldcountyshops.com, a new website that serves as an online marketplace for shops throughout Fairfield County. Through the website, items from all of these local stores can be put in one online basket and paid for in a single transaction, much like national online sites, such as Amazon.
“We wanted to create an experience that was just as simple and just as easy, but people could find the highend products in their own community,” said co-founder Greg Gatto, a Ridgefield resident and a senior at Yale University.
He said this approach will encourage people to shop local. He said research shows that often times people were opting for the large online sites out of convenience and the amount of product choice.
He and partner Olivia Ghee, a Fairfield resident and a recent Fordham Univeristy graduate, said they’re reaching out to a wide collection of shops to also give their customers that product selection.
They said the ultimate goal of the site will be for people to start their shopping experience, including online, locally.
Gatto said they got the idea in September because his mother was saying she felt guilty buying from sites like Amazon when she wanted to support local businesses. He said they decided to look at why it was so much easier to shop on these sites and set out to create a similar model for only local items, officially launching just after Thanksgiving.
So far, 27 stores from Westport, New Canaan, Greenwich, Wilton, Darien, Newtown, Fairfield and Ridgefield have signed on with more businesses in talks to join after the holiday rush dies down a bit, they said.