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Maltese e-commerce platform helps local shops go online

A brand spanking new local e-commerce platform that allows businesses to create their own online shop instantly, has been launched. With no IT expertise required, ShopShape is designed for all kinds of retail businesses, ranging from vintage clothes to grocery stores. ShopShape sets up a professional online shop for business owners, with no upfront costs or development time.

Own your own business? Sign up, add your shop inventory and branding and start selling to customers through your website immediately, with the full support of an experienced team.

The e-commerce platform was designed by the team behind the super successful online ticketing platform ShowsHappening, which has been responsible for the ticketing for over 1,500 events. These events included some of the Maltese Islands’ biggest events over the last eight years, ranging from the Phantom of the Opera, to X-Factor, Joseph Calleja and Andrea Bocelli concerts.

ShowsHappening is renowned for its reliability and 24/7 support and is rated 5/5 by customers on Facebook. Not to mention that it recently got a fresh new look. Online shopping has exploded during the ongoing XOVID-19 pandemic. A United Nations report even concluded that consumers were likely to keep some of their online shopping habits, even once the pandemic is over.

Small business owners simply cannot afford to be left behind. Kurt Farrugia, CEO of Malta Enterprise, warned that SMEs, which do not adapt their business models during the pandemic would, unfortunately, likely go bankrupt.

While many Maltese business owners already interact with their customers online, most just do not have the time, money or technical expertise to develop, maintain and grow an online store for their business, as reported by the MCA. Fortunately, ShopShape promises to solve all these issues, with an easy-to-use interface, which allows business owners to build a user-friendly and professional shop, with a transparent pricing structure, as well as local support.

Stefan Debattista, ShopShape co-founder said: “We’ve designed our platform from the ground-up to be as flexible as possible. If you know how to set up a Facebook page, then you are capable of setting up your online store on your own domain – powered by ShopShape. And it costs retailers absolutely nothing until they start their online sales, with no upfront costs.

“Having an online store is not just about selling your products over the internet. It also allows you to convert social media posts into sales, gives your business a worldwide presence an allows you to very accurately identify who your clients are and what they like – or don’t like – about your business,” he continued.

At the moment, ShopShape are in the process of on-boarding their first clients. Just as ShowsHappening did, “ShopShape will grow around them. We will continue to add features to the platform and integrate with marketing tools such as MailChimp.com, Klaviyo.com, Gorgias.com, as well as local service providers such as local delivery services. Our aim is to create the best possible user experience for our clients and their customers. You won’t find that sort of made-for-Malta customisation anywhere else on the market,” Stefan said.

For more info on ShopShape or the people behind it, contact hello@inshopshape.com, or call Stefan on +356 79431 112.

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