C M Y K
5
SMALL BUSINESS MONTH - SUPPLEMENT TO THE WINNIPEG FREE PRESS - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2021
GoodLocal a good idea Online platform helping small businesses prosper during pandemic
‹‹ “Winnipeg is very
community-minded. It wants to support the local guy and it wants to support the little guy.” – Obby Khan, Co-founder of GoodLocal.ca
BY JIM TIMLICK T he pandemic has been filled with numerous reports of small businesses struggling to survive, but it has also been a time of entrepreneurial success for some. You can include GoodLocal.ca among the latter. The online shopping platform for local businesses has enjoyed a meteoric rise since it was launched by co-founders Obby Khan and Ali Esmail last November. In just over nine months of operation, GoodLocal has already generated close to $1 million in revenue for its nearly 400 partner businesses and is processing several hundred orders or more in any given week. That’s impressive, especially when you consider the partners’ ambitions for GoodLocal were fairly modest when they first came up with the idea for the platform. “When it started, we thought it might literally be only 20 or 30 orders a week and we would do it in the back of my restaurant,” says Khan, who owns Green Carrot Juice Company and several Shawarma Khan restaurants. “Then it just kind of took off during code red (public health restrictions).” Khan and Esmail are both business owners and have been friends for years. One day last fall, the pair were commiserating about how many small local businesses were struggling due to the pandemic and public health restrictions that were in place at the time. The conversation soon shifted to what could they do to support other local business owners. “At the time, people wanted to shop local, but they didn’t know how to shop local,” explains Khan, the former Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive lineman. “Stores were closed, and a lot of these businesses didn’t have e-commerce set up or they didn’t have delivery infrastructure. We finally said, what if we came up with an online platform for them? That was kind of how GoodLocal was born.” Esmail reached out to several people he knew who were involved in the IT industry and they were able to quickly develop GoodLocal.ca. The website is simple to use. Online shoppers simply click on any of the businesses listed on the site, add the items they wish to purchase to their cart and then pay for their purchases when they’re done shopping. Orders are assembled in a warehouse and delivered straight to the customer’s door later that day or the next. One of the things that makes GoodLocal.ca different from many other online shopping platforms is that customers pay a single, modest delivery fee but can choose products from as many
different vendors as they wish. GoodLocal.ca receives a small commission from vendors on each purchase. A portion of its operating costs are underwritten by sponsorships provided by businesses like the Birchwood Automotive Group. “We work with the vendor to find out what commission works for them,” Khan explains. “We don’t gouge them. If certain margins don’t work for them, we try to find a way to make it work.” Khan says there are two main reasons why GoodLocal. ca has been so successful. First, the platform is designed to be accessible and easy to use. Secondly, the community has been extremely supportive of what it’s trying to achieve. “Winnipeg is very community-minded. It wants to support the local guy and it wants to support the little guy,” says Khan, who praised the provincial government for providing
financial support to help scale up the business. “I don’t think this would have taken off in a place like Toronto or Vancouver or Montreal. It needed a special marketplace like Winnipeg to do it.” GoodLocal.ca has grown from just Khan and Esmail to a staff of nine full-time employees including a chief technical officer and four software programmers. It also has its own fleet of five delivery vans as part of its GoodLocal Express delivery service. Khan and Esmail are looking at ways to continuing growing the business in a steady, measured way. They are hoping to launch GoodLocal Restaurants, an online delivery platform for local restaurants that charges a flat fee rather than a commission, by the end of October. They may also consider expanding GoodLocal.ca to other markets down the road. While the success of the website has been gratifying, Khan says what he and Esmail are most pleased about is the help they’ve been able to provide to other local business owners. “GoodLocal has helped generate close to $1 million in revenue for the businesses it works with. That’s amazing. To generate almost a million dollars for local businesses during the pandemic is a pretty awesome thing that Winnipeggers have helped to achieve.”
Photo submitted
Accessibility is good for business.
Good for your employees and customers.
Nearly one out of every four Manitobans face daily challenges with accessibility. Ensuring your business is accessible helps improve productivity and makes workplaces healthier and safer for everyone. Removing barriers to employment for people with disabilities helps you hire, support and keep employees. The new Accessibility Standard for Employment under Manitoba’s accessibility law requires businesses to have policies on workplace accommodations by May 1, 2022 .
Learn more about how your business can meet accessibility standards at AccessibilityMB.ca .
Accessibility Benefits Everyone.
Accessibility Standard for Employment ad Small Business Week c/o Winnipeg Free Press
Ad size: 1/2 Page (11.5625” wide x 10.75” deep)
Powered by FlippingBook