'The exposure is fantastic': New online platform helps Saskatoon businesses compete with online giants

New tool for Sask. businesses to compete online Watch: A new online platform helps Saskatoon businesses compete with Amazon and Wayfair. Pat McKay has the details.

SASKATOON — Blake Olafson owns Gould Home Recreation in Saskatoon and, like many small business owners, was looking for a way to increase the e-Commerce presence for his business during the pandemic.

“Especially with the way times are right now. Amazon, Wayfair they’re our biggest competition, and they're very easy to shop on,” he said.

When he was approached by Local House, he said he signed the contract immediately.

“It was definitely one of those moments of ‘Why didn't I think of that?’” he said.

Local House, created by Saskatoon business owner Mike LePage, is an online shopping resource designed for small and local businesses to get their products to their customers quickly.

“We wanted something reliable, and we wanted to make sure to give the customer the same experience, or as close to an experience, as they would having in shopping in person in the mall, at a store, and having that product in their hands right away,” said LePage, who owns Wheatland Fireplace in Saskatoon.

LePage says Local House provides everything a small business needs to have an online presence, as well as a secondary location to retailers who already have one.

“We provide them with more traffic than they could ever get from just having their own single store, their own single e-commerce, because we're bringing in consumers that are shopping for other products,” he said.

After launching on Dec. 1, 2020, LePage says business is starting to boom.

“It's insane. In the last 48 hours I've almost gotten to a point where we've tripled our merchants.”

“The exposure is fantastic,” said Olafson, citing the sale of one of his pool tables.

“We put it on Local House with the sale price, somebody happened to see it online, wanted to come down and take a look at it, which they did. And purchased it immediately.”

LePage says thus far an employee in Regina takes care of some development and deliveries, while friends and family have been helping with deliveries in Saskatoon, but he’s recently had conversations with another local business about getting products out to customers.

“People want to shop local, but right now people want to stay home,” said Olafson. “So having that option to do both is amazing. We can say ‘Yes you can shop local, yes you can stay home, and you still have access to everything we sell.’”

Lepage says it’s all about supporting local, including how Local House makes money.

“We are doing either a subscription base of $200 a month, or 5 per cent of transaction, and we will cap that 5 per cent transaction out to $200 a month,” he said. “If you're getting a significant sales volume on Local House, you'll never end up paying more than $200 a month to be on the platform, and that's just to give the small guy kind of a fighting shot.”

“I would say sky's the limit for it,” said Olafson. “I really wish I would have thought of it. It's a fantastic idea. I think once it really takes off, it's going to fly. It's going to be the next SkipTheDishes.”

“I would love to have Jon Hamm on my commercials,” said LePage.