COLORADO SPRINGS — As big retailers like Amazon and Target compete for people's spending for Cyber Monday, local small businesses are working to get in on the online action. The Pikes Peak Small Business Development Center says more and more of local business owners are becoming enticed with Cyber Monday.
"Last year I think we only had a dozen orders through the Black Friday weekend. But so far, through black Friday and today, we've got nearly 100 orders so far," said Director of Operations at Rocky Mountain Soap Factory Jahr Turchan.
Rocky Mountain Soap Factory has been in business for the last 9 years, and the last 6 of them have been at their brick-and-mortar retail store in Colorado Springs. They say that their efforts to move online will hopefully expand their reach while increasing sales.
"I think that our e-commerce website will be generating about 50% of our sales hopefully in the next year and a half," said Turchan.
"Online sales will be a big part of creating a viable business in the future," said the Executive Director of the Pikes Peak Small Business Development Center Brandon Eldridge.
He says that many small businesses often use internet traction to garner attention for their in-person efforts. However, that can change once they start to solidify as a company.
"A lot of times you'll find that a platform like Etsy, or other E-commerce places are really great places to start, but then as a business graduates into brick-and-mortar, they still find that online is a really vital part of growing their business," said Eldridge.
Turchan hopes that their online efforts will yield positive results without encroaching on their in-person storefronts. He says the two work together very well.
"Our in-state orders have certainly gone up, but our out-of-state exposure continues to increase. Honestly, we see that our online presence helps our in-store presence... people see the stuff, but they want to come in, touch it, smell it in person, so for our local business having an e-commerce platform really helps as well," he continued.
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