wilkes

My main focus for a few years has been to increase usage in the other counties, but that's an expensive and uphill battle. So in the meanwhile, I'm always working on new ideas and features to keep the site fresh and interesting for the existing users.

I've considered a section for "North Carolina Shopping" (name TBD), where businesses across North Carolina could list their inventory and sell online.

This feature would be on all of the GoNC sites, so it wouldn't just be Wilkes businesses. This means that businesses would need to have the option to pay online then pick up in the store, but I'm thinking that "shipping" would be up to each business; not all would want to ship things outside of the county, so their items wouldn't be listed outside of their county's site.

The thought is that it might help small businesses get online if they otherwise couldn't afford a website of their own, or lack the expertise to manage a website. And, obviously, it would help encourage consumers to buy locally.

Thoughts? I would especially like to hear from retail business owners on this one.