Re-Booting Shop South Frontenac

Jeff Green | Oct 30, 2013

Shop South Frontenac, mach 2, had a kick-off breakfast at the Verona Lions Hall on Tuesday morning, October 29.

The first version of the event took place in February of this year. A number of businesses offered discounts during the month, and the campaign was marketed through a brochure, and print and web advertising.

This time around businesses are being asked to join the Shop South Frontenac Association in order to participate in a year-long marketing effort.

Membership, which costs $100, includes promotion through the Shop South Frontenac website, as well as the ability to participate in four month-long sales promotion events scheduled to take place at strategic times during the year. This first such event will take place this December to capitalize on the Christmas gift-giving season.

Patti Czychun, of Capstone Web Solutions, gave a background presentation at the breakfast meeting. She is one of a core group that have volunteered to transition Shop South Frontenac from a one-shot event into an ongoing joint marketing effort among businesses throughout the sprawling township.

She began her presentation to the meeting by analyzing some of the statistics that were gathered in February. Among the 820 visitors to the Shop South Frontenac website during the promotion, 75% were women and 50% were over 55.

“This makes that our target marketing group,” said Csychun, “but we would also like to extend the age group to the 35 to 54-year-old bracket.”

She also said that she wants to increase the "adhesion" of the site. The bounce rate of the Shop South Frontenac website was 44% in February, which means the 44% of the people who went to the site left it as soon as it came up on their computer; they 'bounced' away to another site.

Among participants at Tuesday's meeting, Nicole Van Camp of Nicole's Gift's in Verona said she saw a 40% bump in sales in February, and Wilmer Wick's candles in Perth Road also saw an increase.

“If we can work together on common branding, the use of social media marketing, and group advertising in print and in the web, we can get the message out that the products and services that people need are available in their communities and they don't have to spend the time and money to drive to Kingston,” said Czychun.

The Shop South Frontenac project has been provided with administrative support from the Township of South Frontenac and has also received a short term grant from the Frontenac Community Futures Development Corporation. Councilors Rod Vandewal and John McDougall as well as Township CAO Wayne Orr attended the meeting, and Wayne Orr said he was ready and able to accept membership fees on the spot. Information about the kinds of consumer deals that will be included in the December promotion will come out later in November, but for now the group is targeting their message to the business community.

For further information, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or go to Shopsouthfrontenac.ca