The Richland Farmers’ Market may have folded up its tables for the winter, but residents can buy fresh local produce, Northwest specialty foods and even fresh, all-natural, locally-made dog treats all year on a new Web site, www.shoptheparkway.com.
Dani Smart, of Dani Smart Design & Photography, created the Web site and a new magazine, called The Parkway, to draw attention and customers to the Richland business district.
“As a marketing company we were challenged with marketing not just a single enterprise, but rather an entire business district along with the Farmers’ Market housed (at the Parkway) five months of the year,” Smart said.
The Parkway has a broad range of retail and services businesses, from small boutique stores to insurance companies, a new cheese shop, restaurants and a theater.
Smart said activity in the area goes up dramatically when the Richland Farmers’ Market starts each spring – filling the street with vendors.
“Our challenge was to figure out a way to market all of this as a collective to a broader market,” Smart said. “We started with a magazine that went out to a combined mailing list of more than 1,500.”
Smart followed up the magazine with an online store that features products from many of the businesses, including Arte, Ariel Gourmet & Gifts, and Wild Goose Design. The Web site also includes items from many of the regular vendors at the Richland Farmers’ Market, like Pat n Tam’s Beef, Two Sisters Honey, Apres Vin, Middleton Organics, and a new business, 4 Paws Barkery — a locally owned store that creates fresh, all natural treats for dogs.
“The site allows customers to buy from a variety of stores and vendors at one time, in one location and have one charge to their credit card,” Smart said. “In a sense, it’s like walking down the Richland Parkway on Market day, shopping along the way, paying in one place and having everything you purchased delivered to your home or ready for pick-up.”
Smart said that during October, there were more than 550 visitors and sales from across Washington, as well as from 25 states. The site, which went live in September, averaged about 19 new visitors per day, she said.
For more information, visit shoptheparkway.com or e-mail contact@therichlandparkway.com.
by Mary Hopkin
Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business
