At Kiers Marketing, we do our very best to buy local. Some things that we use are not sold locally so we have to purchase from non-local sources. However, when it is sold in our region, we buy from our region.
For instance, in our business, the things we need like printing, translation, office supplies, insurance, toner cartridges, printers, web hosting, etc. are all purchased locally. Sure, this is available online, but why buy online when you could be supporting a local business.
We produce and sell display booths and banner stands. Yes, these are available online and yes, they can be less expensive. But what happens when the item you order is poor quality or it breaks? Who do you turn to for help? Most people don’t think about this when they buy less expensive from online companies like Vistaprint. You are pretty much out of luck when something goes wrong, and you get what you pay for.
Here is another good example. Let’s say you buy inexpensive web hosting from a large international company and your site goes down or is hacked. You contact them (which is an ordeal in itself) and then you have to wait for a response. When they do respond, you are told they will look into it and get back to you. That costs you in lost time (possibly lost sales) as the response is not usually immediate. If you spend a bit more money and use a local vendor, you get looked after right away and you don’t have to deal with costly lost time without an active site.
Yes, we all buy online from time to time, it’s what we do. But when it comes to your business, think about how it impacts you when someone buys online or out of town instead of from you. It’s a little easier to grasp when the shoe is on the other foot.