Led by the Manitou Springs Creative District (MSCD) in partnership with the Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce, Visitors Bureau & Office of Economic Development, manitoumade.com will prominently feature locally-made items that are crafted, designed, prepared, source, brewed, or experienced only in the greater Manitou Springs region.
Today, the organizations kick off the project by announcing the selection of their web development partner in Neon Pig Creative.
“Everything about this project seeks to create maximum local economic impact,” said MSCD economic recovery director/executive director Becca Sickbert. “Our project team invited only local agencies to respond to the RFP, and the team at Neon Pig Creative presented the most cohesive, rapidly deployable, and comprehensive plan for capturing the spirit of Manitou Springs in an ecommerce package.”
The manitoumade.com project will deliver a multivendor digital marketplace showcasing the people, places, and products unique to Manitou Springs in addition to offering digital marketing and ecommerce classes open to the wider business community.
“When we asked our business community to evaluate their alternative delivery mechanisms for product and services, 85% had a website, but only about half of those websites were equipped for selling online,” said Sickbert. “In talking with our partners at the Chamber of Commerce, we realized that we needed to create a platform that could build ecommerce capacity for our community.”
Manitoumade.com is funded by CARES Act Relief Fund dollars through El Paso County and slated for launch in the late fall of 2020.
