Somerville Plaza’s local traders have been working hard to serve our clients throughout the pandemic. But it has been hard. With lock downs in place many of them have been unable to open or, if they have been lucky, they’ve been able to open but at reduced capacity.
Many of them have been able to pivot and offer services online but they may still have had a drop off in customers.
We know that there has been an increased interest in supporting local businesses – to ensure shopping precincts like ours, those that are the fabric of our local community – continue to survive and thrive.
If you want to support our local traders, in a cost-effective way, there are a number of things you can do.
Here are some options below if you are looking to support our traders.
Buy something – Whilst you may not be able to visit some of our traders in store currently, many of them are still trading. You can buy something via their website to either be delivered to your house or to pick up via click and collect.
Buy a gift voucher for use later – You could buy a gift voucher from one of our traders who currently isn’t opening for use later. Buying a gift voucher now would support their revenue going forward. It can also help ensure that local jobs are kept.
Buy a gift or gift voucher for someone else – You could buy gifts or gift vouchers for your friends and family. You could do this at one of our local retailers instead of going to a major retailer that has much more cash in the bank.
Share or comment on their social media content – You may be struggling yourself. You may be unemployed or underemployed. You may not have a huge amount of cash to spend at our local traders. Even if you do, you can further support our tenants. You can easily get on their social media platforms, like their pages and profiles, comment on their posts and share their content. Helping your favourite traders amplify their message online will help them reach a wider audience and find more customers.
Sign up to their mailing list – If one of your favourite Somerville Plaza shops has an email newsletter and you aren’t signed up you should give them your email address. You may find that they share a special offer in a future newsletter that you want to take advantage of. You can give them the chance to promote themselves further.
Write a review online – Online reviews help build a business’s credibility. If you have had a good experience with one of our shops but you haven’t left them a review online we would definitely encourage you to do so. It will be valuable to our shops in the long term to have more reviews online.
Recommend them to your friends and family – If you are happy to write a review for one of our Somerville Plaza shops online then would you consider taking it one step further? Why not make the effort to recommend them to your friends and family.
At Somerville Plaza we see ourselves as more than just a Shopping Plaza. We see ourselves as a central hub in our local community and it is our traders that hold this fabric together. We hope you can help us continue to be the hub of our local community by supporting our local traders. Shop local and support our community.
