A new online shopping destination, UrbanShoppe, is set to debut just in time for the 2013 holiday shopping season. UrbanShoppe is similar to other shopping portal sites except for one big difference. UrbanShoppe brings urban shoppers and the small merchants together. This is the first of its kind for this buying audience.
“The Windows of UrbanShoppe” (http://urbanshoppemall.com) will have hundreds of merchant windows in as many as 10 different “shops” selling thousands of products. Shops include everything from fashion to food and professional services. UrbanShoppe is scheduled to be online by Black Friday in time for the Kwanzaa and Christmas shopping season.
The site is a visual display of store window displays. To populate the mall’s windows, UrbanShoppe is offering Charter Vendors 6 months free window space, which is a half-year of no-cost advertising. That’s an incredible offer.
According to publisher Marla Currie, “No ecommerce takes place on the urbanShoppe site. Visitors browse vendor windows then clicks through to a linked online store, website or blog to browse further or make a transaction. UrbanShoppe is a merchant portal to and from urban America.
UrbanShoppe is the sister site of TheUrbanShopper.com, a shopping lifestyle magazine whose original editorial is focused on modern consumerism, where thoughtful spending for “the good life” is encouraged and celebrated.
“We are so pleased to be a new economic bridge into and out of the minority community,” notes Currie. “Urban Shoppers get access to unique, often one-of-a-kind, skilled craftsman or artisan goods from vendors from their community, nationally even globally. Vendors get traffic from customers most likely to be their best prospects. It’s a win-win all around.”
