What’s happening: Shopping local has gotten a whole lot easier in Oakland County. A coalition of ten Main Street Oakland County communities have partnered together to launch a new e-commerce website that county officials are touting as the first of its kind in Michigan.
What it is: The website,
Shop OC Main Streets, launched earlier this month and currently features the products and online stores of approximately 70 small businesses located in participating downtowns throughout Oakland County. The website offers a one-stop shop for customers looking to buy from and support local businesses, and all the while enjoying the ease of convenience that bigger retailers can offer.
The website is found at
ShopOCMainStreets.com.
Why it’s important: “Coming out of the COVID pandemic, we all knew that our downtown businesses needed to expand into e-commerce,” says Kristi Trevarrow, executive director for Downtown Rochester. “Being part of Main Street Oakland County and the national network that provides, we were connected to Member Marketplace, Inc. They build and maintain the website, provide technical support to the participating small businesses, and help customers visiting the site.”
Who’s involved: The ten participating downtowns include Franklin, Highland, Holly, Lake Orion, Oak Park, Ortonville, Oxford, Pontiac, Rochester, and South Lyon. Main Street Oakland County is the first and only county-wide Main Street program in the country, and counts more than 25 of its communities as participants in the economic development program. It’s expected that more of those communities will participate in Shop OC Main Streets in the near future.
What they’re saying: “More communities and businesses will be added in the coming months,” says Kelly Westbrook, DDA executive director for Oxford. “The participating MSOC communities’ downtown businesses will be able to affordably sell online through one website – marketing together as a localized group.”
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