Organizers of the eBay-backed 鈥淩etail Revival鈥� program closed their one-year mission Thursday with a look back at their successes 鈥� and what they learned 鈥� in Northeast Ohio.
The program and helped about 70 small businesses in Warren and Akron sell online more effectively. Chris Librie, eBay鈥檚 Head of Global Impact & Giving, says the most successful businesses were the ones that offered a unique slant on an existing product.
鈥淧eople who鈥檝e created their own cosmetics, their own skin-care products to their own fashion. You can go to a ladies鈥� clothing store anywhere, right? But if you have a point-of-view, you can really be something that becomes a destination, no matter where the person is doing their purchasing.鈥�
Although the formal Retail Revival program was limited to 12 months, the company鈥檚 philanthropic foundation is giving a total of $70,000 in grants to two of its community partners here, and . Heather Roszczyk is Akron鈥檚 innovation and entrepreneurship advocate.
鈥淲e are going to be concentrating existing resources 鈥� as well as providing new resources 鈥� to get businesses into the empty storefronts that are in those places. So that we can make sure that they鈥檙e populated, and make sure that businesses have a clear path. Maybe they went through the Retail Revival program, their business has grown as a result of that program, and now they鈥檙e looking to open a storefront.鈥�
Organizers say that one of the lessons from the pilot program in Akron was to provide more one-on-one coaching for entrepreneurs, as opposed to broad-based webinars.
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