FLORENCE– The Florence-Lauderdale Convention + Visitors Bureau (CVB) has opened its first online retail store called, The Shoals Shop.
The online e-commerce platform is hosted through Shopify and will offer a wide variety of merchandise items. Several items which the visitor center gift shop does not carry will also be sold at theshoalsshop.com.
The Shopify platform offers online retailers a suite of services including payments, marketing, shipping, and customer engagement tools.
The company reported that it had more than 1,700,000 businesses in approximately 175 countries using its platform as of May 2021. According to Builtwith, 1.58 million websites run on the Shopify platform as of 2021.
The Florence-Lauderdale CVB has recently introduced several new Shoals-centric items into the gift shop created by Director of Marketing & Communications, Will Martin.
Will Martin
“With a graphic design background, I have enjoyed creating designs for both existing and new items for the gift shop”, said Martin. With four cities and a multitude of attractions and experiences, we hope to create designs for products that meet all our visitor’s needs.”
The Florence-Lauderdale Visitor Center, which opened on June 2, 2014, has been an information outlet for visitors along with a gathering place for local artisans, musicians and cultural events. The center, located in McFarland Park, also serves as the office for the CVB team.
“Creating an online store is just one more way we can elevate our brand to make visitors aware of where we are and what we offer, said Rob Carnegie, President & CEO. “We want to be an organization that is looking for innovative methods to reach a broader audience.”
New items will be frequently introduced with many items branded by city within The Shoals. Currently, the website offers t-shirts, mugs, water bottles, bracelets, wine tumblers, hats and other items. Visitors to the website can simply order online and products will be shipped to their home.
The Shoals Shop can be found online at www.theshoalsshop.com or by visiting the CVB’s website at www.visitshoals.com
Media Release/Rob Carnegie
President & CEO/FLORENCE-LAUDERDALE CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU
