Love Local? Dive into New 'Retailpond' Site

A new website aims to help you help grow your local economy. Its name is Retailpond. The Tyee is thrilled to be helping to launch Retailpond's first phase, the "beta" release, with a contest for 13 great prizes and a $500 gift certificate -- more about which in a minute. But first, a bit of background.

In February, The Tyee attended a two-day Local Economy Summit put on by Ten Percent Shift. While there, we promoted a Valentine-themed contest with partners LOCO BC and Vancity that encouraged readers to pen love letters to their favourite local businesses. And, boy, did you respond: we got 690 love letters in total from all over B.C. and beyond, reinforcing our hunch that many of you strongly embrace the economic and social argument for buying local whenever possible, and keeping money circulating more intensively in your own communities.

While at the summit, I met Dominic Stann who was working with partners on the final stages of a site called Retailpond, a platform for discovering and supporting quality local artisans and independent brands. As he explained it to me, Retailpond would occupy the space between sites like Etsy, an online shopping site where any individual crafter can sell their wares, and Amazon, where you can find just about anything under the sun. The focus would be on professional artisans and independently owned smaller brands that were at the scale and quality to go into retail, but were challenged by big retail's preference for large multinational manufacturers and lowest-cost producers.

Dominic knew this challenge first-hand. In 2007, his fledgling B.C.-based health drink company got interest from a major U.S.-owned grocery chain. That chain's insistence that they radically scale-up their production and open U.S. facilities, paired with the 2008 economic crash, proved too much, and he and his partners were forced to fold the business. Seeing that same small producer/big retailer dynamic playing out over a number of different sectors and inspired by the determination of the entrepreneurs around them, Dominic and a new set of partners began work on Retailpond. (Watch a video of Dominic explaining the vision for Retailpond.)

What has emerged is a site with the potential to knit together communities all across North America through the common thread of the unique independent products made there.

How Retailpond works

Retailpond will give visibility and a sales channel to entrepreneurs whose products locally-minded shoppers might not otherwise ever see.

Curators in each community will help select vendors for the 'shelves,' ensuring some level of quality control in the selection of products.

A percentage of a product's sale price will be split between reviewers whose comments proved useful to the buyers, rewarding those purchasers for spreading the word.

A Vancouver buyer might start by checking out local-area products, but then go and check out what independent Calgary, Toronto or Seattle vendors had to offer.

All in all, the hope is to create a positive disruption of traditional retail, geared towards strengthening awareness of local.

After getting a flavour for The Tyee's coverage and checking out our readers' love letter contributions, Retailpond decided to launch their public beta with a Tyee-hosted contest.

So, readers, here's where you come in (and win)

Retailpond has rustled up 13 prizes worth a total of $2,000 from their early-adopter list of Vancouver-based artisans and independent brands (based in Vancouver, the first community they're launching in with others to follow.)

Here they are (check out the contest entry page to learn more about the prizes and get started):

All you have to do to enter is sign up to explore the beta site and create a quick, simple profile. There's no commitment, and your email won't be shared with other parties.

Then to take it up a notch, Retailpond is also offering a $500 gift certificate to one lucky winner. This can used to buy anything on Retailpond between the contest's end date and June 30, 2014.

To put yourself in the running for the $500 prize, just tell us a bit about the local products you love (or make).

Maybe it's one-of a kind local jeweler. Or an innovative wooden kids' toy. Beautifully made re-purposed leather accessories, locally designed clothing or cheeky stationary. Whatever it is, tell us about it. As long as it can reasonably be shipped by mail, it could be a contender for Retailpond's curated 'shelves.'

Every submission will get published on The Tyee, so this fun and fast "crowd curation" exercise will quickly create a big list of quality artisans and locally-owned brands from all across Canada for readers to check out.

Artisans and entrepreneurs: By all means tells us about your own product!

Consider this a crowd-sourced showcase that Retailpond's curators will watch for ideas and Tyee readers will scan to see what's out there. Our easy submission form asks you to identify yourself as the designer/producer, so there's no need to feel shy about promoting yourself.

Alright, what are you waiting for? Get started with your entry now. We look forward to hearing about the local products you love and/or produce.

If you want to hear founder Dominic Stann talk about his vision for Retailpond, and his hopes for having local buying fans help grow the site, watch this: