Shop Batavia

Is there a local business you just love? Do you want to make sure other Genesee County residents know how great it is? Would you like a chance to win a $100 gift certificate to that business?

Go to Shop Batavia right now, find that business listing, leave a five-star review and be entered into a drawing to win a $100 gift certificate.

On June 25, we'll select one review in a random drawing. The person who wrote it will win a $100 gift certificate to the business.

When you want to shop locally and shop online, there's only one place to do it: Shop Batavia.

Here's some of the great offers on Shop Batavia now:

• Save $40 on a Hot Diamonds Sterling Silver and Black Agate bracelet from Lambert's
• Buy One Get One Free set of guitar strings from Roxy's Music
• Get a free T-shirt with every hoodie purchased (offer expires today) from Pink Gorilla
• $5 off your first massage from Rae Ann's Hands Relaxation and Therapeutic Massage
• $10 off repairs of $100 or more from L&L Transmissions
• 25-percent off your entire purchase from Anything Goes Books and More
• A $40 photo session with Jes Richardson Photography

You can also buy gift certificates for local businesses. Click here.

Check Shop Batavia's home page daily for new offers and promotions from local businesses.

When you shop locally, more of your hard earned dollars stay in the local community where they do the most good. Shop Locally. Shop Batavia.

The Batavia Business Improvement District and Shop Batavia are now working together to help promote downtown businesses.

In a special arrangement for BID members, extra features and discounts are now available through Shop Batavia and participating BID members will be part of an association page, helping customers more easily find downtown businesses on the site.

BID members will be able to more effectively use Shop Batavia to promote their businesses and sell merchandise online with the enhanced features.

Details available in this PDF.

With Shop Batavia, you can shop local (keeping more of your dollars in the local economy) and save money.

Check out the coupon page for great offers from local businesses, including, but not limited to:

• $5 off a new battery from Darien Auto.
• $100 off a shed
• $10 off a bill of $20 or more at North Pembroke Hotel
• $1 off a large sub from Northside Deli
• Buy one set of guitar strings, get a second free, from Roxy's Music
• Half-price tire rotation & spin balance from Sloat Tire

Also, from Turnbull Heating and Air Conditioning, you can purchase a special deal -- $25 off a residential heating and air diagnostic.

There's been some great activity taking place on Shop Batavia recently:

• Turnbull Heating and Air Conditioning has signed on as a premium business.
• Making Memories of Travel WNY provides nearly daily updates about specials and events.
• About Morgs Sawz & Stoves is offering a free ton of pellets with purchase (a $244 value).
• Dumbleton Used Auto Parts Inc.'s Online Store is offering 5 percent off any purchase of $25 or more.
• Bill Fox & Son Construction & Remodeling has a new listing, as does Foxprowl Collectables.
• McAuley's Bargain Bin is offering a FREE gift with a purchase of $5 or more.

And the list could go on.

If you check the home page of Shop Batavia daily, you'll find new specials and new information about great local businesses.

Remember, when you shop locally, more of your dollars stay in the local community to help our community grow and thrive.

The winner in our most recent Shop Batavia contest is Trish Cody.

Trish wins a set of handcrafted Valentine's glasses from Bruggie's.

The winner was selected at random from among people who "Liked" Shop Batavia on Facebook and registered for the contest.

Shop local!

Shop Batavia -- the only place in Genesee County to shop at locally owned businesses online, all in one place, and find coupons, gift certificates, recommendations and merchandise from local shops.

We have a new Shop Batavia contest: Like Shop Batavia on Facebook and complete the registration and you will be entered to win a set of handmade Valentine's Day Wine Glasses from Bruggie's. For more amazing handmade items created by Bruggie's, all available for purchase from Shop Batavia, click here.

Click here to enter the contest.

In the six weeks since we launched Shop Batavia, the response has been great.  People around town ask me about the site and tell me what a great idea they think it is and so far 135 local businesses have created accounts.

More than 100 items are listed in the site's marketplace.

A dozen businesses are selling gift certificates.

There are currently 10 money-saving coupons available.

More than 100 reviews have been posted.

And if you check the news feed daily on the home page, you can see the site is bustling with activity.

Thanks to all who have supported the site so far. We're excited about the good start and eager to see Shop Batavia grow, giving local businesses and local shoppers a great way to connect, do business and help the local economy.

The winner of our Shop Batavia review contest is Toby Cook, of Byron.

Toby wins a $100 gift certificate to Valle Jewelers.

We conducted a random drawing of the more than 220 reviews left during the contest period, and Toby's review was the one selected.

Thank you to all who participated.

There is just one day left in our contest:

You know there are local businesses that you just love -- tell us about them on Shop Batavia and you could win a $100 gift certificate from one of your favorite businesses.

The feedback we've received since launching Shop Batavia has been uniformly positive, but I really liked this note I got a few days ago from Michelle Thompson, owner of Hair Clip Holiday, a home-based business in Pavilion.

HI Howard,
I just wanted to take a moment and let you know how impressed I am with this website!!!  I love the traffic reports, messages, and all those little extras.  Someone put a lot of time into designing this!

I never heard of this website until last Sunday, I was shopping at a local gift shop, and I overheard two people talking about  ShopBatavia.com....don't get the wrong idea about me,  I normally don't ease-drop,   but they were right next to me,  and I couldn't help but to listen to them talk about your site.

Well, I will keep this short and sweet,  so I just want to say thank you for this service.

More than 100 local businesses have set up their storefronts on Shop Batavia so far. If you own or manage a local business and haven't done the same yet, you can get started by going to shopbatavia.com, finding your listing and clicking the "claim my business" link. If your business isn't listed yet, you can click the "add business" button on the home page. A basic, starter storefront is free.

Shop Batavia exists to connect local shoppers with local businesses, giving local businesses a place to promote their goods and services to local customers in a direct way online, any time of day, and give businesses a powerful option to promote what they do.

Just about everybody nowadays researches their purchases online, even if they eventually walk into a store to make the purchase. Local businesses, to remain competitive today, must have robust ways to promote themselves online.

Shop Batavia isn't just another "create a link in a business directory and hope people find it" kind of site. It's rich with features that include e-commerce capabilities, coupons, deals, gift certificates, restaurant menus, email newsletters, free websites and more. There's nothing else like it available to Genesee County-based businesses, not even from national companies.

And readers, a reminder about our contest: You can win a $100 gift certificate if you leave a five-star review of a local business on Shop Batavia. One review will be randomly selected and the author of that review will receive a $100 gift certificate to that business. So review your favorite local businesses today -- only two days left in the contest.

It's a New Year, time to get a fresh start, make some resolutions, set some goals for 2012.  Shop Batavia is here to help:

• Learn to play a musical instrument with the help of Roxy's Music.
• Get in shape, improve your health, enroll in fun fitness classes at Next Level Fitness.
• Learn fencing at En Garde.
• Achieve tranquility with classes at Exhale Yoga.
• Improve your mind at Genesee Community College.
• Turn your body into a canvas for art at High Voltage Tattoo.
• Visit the Magic Kingdom with the help of Making Memories Travel of WNY.
• Learn to create using glass at the Oakta School of Glass.
• Help make your community stronger by shopping locally more often, starting with Shop Batavia.
• Give your home the make over it deserves with Suzanne Interiors.

Don't forget about our contest: Leave a five-star review for a local business on Shop Batavia for a chance to win a $100 gift certificate from that business.

You know there are local businesses that you just love -- tell us about them on Shop Batavia and you could win a $100 gift certificate from one of your favorite businesses.

Here's how it works: Register as a user on Shop Batavia then find the listing for your favorite business(es) and leave a five-star review.

On Jan. 7, we'll randomly select one of the reviews left on The Batavian and if you're the person who left the review, we'll buy you a $100 gift certificate to that business. (If that business doesn't offer gift certificates, we'll buy a gift certificate to another favorite business you reviewed).

So, head over to Shop Batavia, now and start leaving reviews.

Jordan Fleming was picked in a random drawing as the winner of our Shop Batavia / Roxy's Music Facebook "Like" contest.

Fleming wins either a Peavy Stage Pack Electric Guitar Starter Pack or $150 in-store credit.

Congratulations to Jordan.

To enter the contest, Click Here.

If you've previously 'Liked" Shop Batavia, you can still enter this contest. You just need to complete the registration form. Click Here.

If you haven't checked out Shop Batavia yet, Click Here.

If you still need to finish out that Christmas shopping list, there are plenty of local businesses with just the right items to make the special people in your life quite happy.

A few of them have items readily available on Shop Batavia, such as:

• Roxy's Music
• Adam Miller Toys and Bicycles
• Charle's Mens Shop
• Wendy Wood's Custom Design
• En Garde
• Valle Jewelers
• Bruggie's

Most readers know that a big motivation behind what we do at The Batavian is promote our local community.  We believe that communities that are filled with volunteers, people who make a personal investment in their community and -- just as important -- shop locally, help improve their community and create a community that thrives.

That's always been a part of our goal at The Batavian, and Shop Batavia helps us focus that aim.

According to NPR, this breed of localism is a growing trend. Here's the article, which unfortunately promotes the very un-local Groupon and Living Social instead of mentioning the more than 100 local online news sites (similar to The Batavian), which truly are part of the localism trend.

Whether you use Shop Batavia or The Batavian to shop local, just remember, for the sake of the health of our community, shop local first.

I was thrilled to get this email from Brian Staebell, marketing director for Roxy's Music, and wanted to share it. Brian clearly gets what we're trying to do with Shop Batavia.

I was very excited about Shop Batavia when you showed it to me and even more after getting in and seeing how easy it is to manage your products and business listings. I’m looking for ideas where we can help each other promote our businesses together. I think if Shop Batavia is successful, we’ll be successful. We’ve already seen sales through the site. We received one direct order for a music stand and another customer saw our guitar starter pack on the site and decided to stop in and buy it. Reaching out to the the local market through shopbatavia.com  is an additional avenue to promote our business in conjunction to our existing website. Being able to drive sales both online and in store is very important to us, this service does that and more. So far, Shop Batavia has been successful for us.

As I said before, when Shop Batavia came along, I felt like it was an unexpected gift -- a great chance to create a new revenue avenue for The Batavian so we can continue to grow the business. But I also was excited because Shop Batavia brought to local businesses some really powerful marketing tools -- tools that through other avenues can be difficult, confusing and/or expensive, but here they were in one place, affordable and accessible.

The real power of Shop Batavia, though, will be realized when we have widespread participation from local businesses. The more businesses using Shop Batavia, the more local residents will want to use it as a shopping guide, restaurant guide, community bulletin board, business directory and online shopping mall.

All boats will rise together -- for local businesses and for local residents.

It was great to read Brian's email and see that he understands the success of Shop Batavia isn't just about success for a business venture of The Batavian's, it also means a success for his business, for all the local businesses it serves and for the people who use the site to shop local businesses.

If you haven't checked out Shop Batavia yet, click here. Nearly 100 businesses have already signed on for accounts and there are new products, services and savings available every day.

Most readers will probably remember the trip I took to Chicago a couple of months ago – for a conference with other small, local publishers.

One of my longtime friends in the industry was there and she showed off a service she had launched in her local community to deliver really powerful online marketing tools to locally owned businesses.

These were tools that can be really expensive and time-consuming for local businesses to implement on their own, but here was an effective, efficient and affordable solution.

I told my friend I wanted to bring this service to Genesee County. She got me in touch with the developers and a few weeks ago we signed a contract so The Batavian could deliver this powerful platform to local businesses and the local shoppers who will use it.

Today, we are introducing Shop Batavia.

Why will local businesses like Shop Batavia?

First, because never before have merchants in Genesee County been offered such powerful marketing tools at such an affordable rate.

ShopBatavia.com isn't just another "hope they find us" business directory with nothing more than a picture and a few words about your business. With ShopBatavia.com merchants can actually sell online, offer specials, discounts, coupons, daily deals, product information, set up newsletters for direct marketing, integrate with Facebook and Twitter, answer customer questions and do it all in an environment that is professional and backed by same-day phone support.

ShopBatavia.com is bolstered by the marketing power of The Batavian, with its thousands of daily local readers and thousands of Facebook fans.

With powerful reporting tools, you won't have to guess if ShopBatavia.com is working for you. You will know it's working for you.

Why will local shoppers love Shop Batavia?

Because for the first time, they’re going to be able to shop online at dozens of locally owned businesses and either arrange in-store pick up or have the items shipped directly to their homes.

Customers will be able to use Shop Batavia to find local coupons, discounts, special sales, browse restaurant menus and contact local merchants with questions.

And all of this will be available online, from any computer or mobile device 7/24, every day of the year.

I’m excited and pleased to bring Shop Batavia to Genesee County. There is not now, nor has there ever been, anything like Shop Batavia available to Genesee County residents and businesses.