Midland Brings Businesses Online as Main Street Faces Disruption From Construction
Next year, Midland’s King Street, one of the town’s key arteries will undergo a massive redesign, disrupting the flow of the downtown core and the businesses that drive the local economy. It’s a big change for the community, one the Downtown Midland Business Improvement Area has been hoping to offset by fixing up the alleyways, putting in more signage, and improving facades in the back.
Major improvements in Midland’s downtown mean getting local businesses online over the coming months is a critical task.
Next year, Midland’s King Street, one of the town’s key arteries will undergo a massive redesign, disrupting the flow of the downtown core and the businesses that drive the local economy. It’s a big change for the community, one the Downtown Midland Business Improvement Area has been hoping to offset by fixing up the alleyways, putting in more signage, and improving facades in the back.
“We're fortunate we have them but some stores don't have that access,” says Matthew Shepherd, communications manager for the BIA. Which is why Digital Main Street’s roll-out across Ontario came at a good time for the community. The program – which is supported by the Province of Ontario and the Ontario BIA Association – offers grants to help small main street businesses across Ontario strengthen their digital and online capabilities.
“It's definitely important and something we've been really thinking about,” says Shepherd.
Since rolling out the program in May, the BIA has 18 businesses that’ve completed the assessment. “Those that have done the assessment have loved it and everyone loves the whole 3D camera idea too,” he says. One of the hurdles is that many stores don't know what search engine optimization means and how it works. “At least they can kind of understand when you Google your business and it pops up right there… you can check out the 360 photos (which is) something they understand even if they're not really tech savvy.”
Shepherd says he had one business owner – David Antebi of Harbourlife Holistic Remedies – complete the eight hours of training video within a week. “He’s really on board with getting all his products online, he definitely sees the importance of that especially with the construction coming up,” says Shepherd. Harbourlife Holistic Remedies is aiming to get 500 of its products added to its new online store.
Shepherd also works at ShopCity, a home-grown Midland e-commerce platform that has since been adopted by BIAs throughout North America. Businesses can create a free profile and then the built-in SEO helps get them to appear in local searches. The company also does marketing.
He points out that the whole BIA is linked to it, so the directory is already giving local businesses an edge online. But with DMS, the Squad member is able to connect with businesses on a one-to-one basis.
“We make sure everybody has some digital presence,” he says. “It's pretty important to still have things going through the construction.”
Written by: Andrew Seale
Digital Main Street was created by the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas (TABIA) with direct support from the City of Toronto. DMS is also supported by a group of strategic business partners, including Google, Mastercard, Shopify, Microsoft, Facebook, Intuit QuickBooks, Square, Yellow Pages and Lightspeed.
This case study was completed during a prior expansion of DMS in partnership with the Province of Ontario and Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
In June 2020, a $42.5-million investment from FedDev Ontario and an additional $7.45 million from the Government of Ontario brought together the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas, Communitech, Invest Ottawa and the Ontario Business Improvement Area Association to expand the Digital Main Street Platform in order to support more businesses going digital as a response to the impacts of COVID-19.
