Less than a month after its inception, the Petal Retailers group is set to host its first big event: Shop Petal Online, an initiative that gives business owners a chance to showcase their offerings to online customers during the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The event, which will be held May 7 and 8 on the Petal Area Chamber of Commerce Facebook page, will feature eight Petal retailers: Carter’s Jewelry, Grand Central Outfitters, Rhinestone Ranch, Sweet Blossom, Southern Lace Boutique, Fig Boutique, Merle Norman Cosmetic Studio and Tropical Glamour.
Each retailer will be given a 30-minute video opportunity to talk about sales, special online offerings and services the merchants have to offer.
“It’s going to be similar to Shop Petal First; it’s just going to be an online promotion,” said Valerie Wilson, executive director of the Petal Area Chamber of Commerce. “They’ll have specified times where they can show what’s going on in their store, what their specials are, and then they will also be able to continue selling for two days.
“On Thursday, everybody is going to have a time slot – which I don’t have set up yet – where it’ll be focused just on them and what’s going on in their store.”
Chae Carter, owner of Carter’s Jewelry, said the idea for Shop Petal Online was born during a recent Zoom meeting of the Petal Retailers, which was established in late March to help retailers band together with “Community Over Competition” in the face of the coronavirus.
While throwing ideas around, the business owners decided to institute something similar to Shop Petal First, which is usually held in November to support local businesses.
“We thought about doing Shop Petal First in the summer, but just doing it online and then it kind of grew from there,” Carter said. “So we’re excited to do it, and to have so many retailers involved. Each one of us is going to do a different sale, but you can see what we’re going to do on that live segment.
“Ours is going to last for two days, and we’re going to do an item on sale every 30 minutes, like 40 to 70 percent off. We’ll post the items and the videos, and delete them as they sell, and then we’re going to do a promo code for our entire website, and we won’t announce that until our 30-minute block that Thursday morning.”
Tabitha Peek Burden, owner of Grand Central Outfitters, described the endeavor as a sort of “virtual shopping tour.”
“Just since we’ve had to close in-store shopping, we’ve gotten a lot of new stuff in, so we just want to show people what we have,” she said. “We’re open to shop – and shop now – but if they don’t feel comfortable doing that, then they can shop via Facebook or online.”
For more information, call the chamber at (601) 583-3306 or visit petalchamber.com.
