#lookforlocal
It’s all about making an impact on consumer behaviour, a ‘swipe-right’ convenience for local-businesses and consumers who prefer support their own economy.
A local omni-channel
for the ‘80% of consumers who prefer source local rather online (LEO / Amarach). To challenge unsustainable levels of direct imports. The lo-tech, lo-effort app demonstrates an alternative channel to the currently monopolised internet providing brick-and-mortar owners a little more confidence in the future of retail.
Disinformation
Many people get led by false narratives: that future path for towns and villages is ‘F & B’ + ‘Vanity’ (food, beverage & personal services) and “everything else will be delivered direct”. This happened before in the tobacco and fossil-fuel industry. Founder and ex retailer Ronan Gilroy believes everything-direct is not realistic, nor environmentally sound, plus we cannot take for granted the value and importance, indigenous shops provide for vitality within our towns and villages.
An Irish Model
Tourists love the uniqueness and character our towns mostly still offer, contrast this with chain-store-ification like the UK high streets. Spending in local stores provides your economy an additional 64-80% value, with chain stores it’s about 14%, but with online giants the value is negative.
Mobility
We see the pattern of many local websites going under resourced or maintained. So to support a local store in-person visits are essential, but 1000’s of potential customers face limited mobility or transportation options. Do we just abandon them, leaving it to the Big Ecommerce giants? In losume, we’re adding a little feature to help prioritise this customer segment.
Vacancy rates
“It’s sad to witness the levels of dereliction and vacancy, the only new shops opening are poor quality and merely reactive property-owners avoiding vacancy taxes.”
In short, losume is an ‘enshitification-bypass for retail’. We are delighted to have reached pilot stage after three years of development. If you know someone who wants a challenge? please share -say hello, send feedback, send euros! or volunteer?
love
Ronan James Mark Sophie Jo