For Immediate Release

Toronto — With businesses across North America reopening, a recent survey by OneLocal concluded that most businesses may not be prepared to take in new customers.

In a survey of 1,072 consumers commissioned by OneLocal, 4 out of 5 respondents said they would not enter a small business unless they met COVID-19 safety regulations. In addition, 89 % of respondents said it is necessary for a business to post what regulations they follow online. OneLocal has developed a free online resource called https://covidsafe.services/ that helps businesses to educate themselves on the new COVID regulations and easily display what safety protocols they are following. 

To date, millions of small businesses around North America are set to reopen as mandatory closures start to be lifted. But large government regulators may not be able to build out comprehensive guidelines in time for these small businesses, which creates a lack of clarity all the way down to the consumer.

“We’re asking these small businesses to digest a lot of information, from a lot of different sources, and we feel this is a huge ask. Not only that, but it’s unclear whether these businesses are being set up for success when they reopen,” said Maggie McIntyre, Director of Operations at OneLocal. “We think there’s still going to be some fear among consumers. After months of being told to stay home, people may think twice before rushing back into stores. Especially if businesses can’t show the precautions they’re taking.”

To deal with this problem, the team at OneLocal built COVIDsafe.services. Businesses can access dozens of industry-tailored safety checklists that they can use to navigate government regulations. They can then create a publicly-facing profile that shows which COVID safety standards they are following, and even add a COVIDsafe badge directly to their website for their customers.

“We’ve been speaking to small businesses, and even those who have since reopened, or maybe never closed at all, are struggling to get people through the doors,” said Maggie McIntyre. “People are saying ‘why should I walk into a store and risk my health when I can just order online?’ We’re hopeful COVIDsafe.services will give consumers an alternative to buying online because we truly believe that small businesses are the key to restarting the economy”.

OneLocal helps thousands of small businesses across North America get more business with a series of best-in-class and affordable marketing automation tools. As part of an effort to help restart the economy, OneLocal created https://covidsafe.services/, a free tool for businesses to navigate complex new government safety regulations around COVID-19. Customers now put safety as the number one priority, so OneLocal has built a suite of tools to help businesses navigate this new world.

Methodology

Number of Respondents: 1072

These observations are based on a survey of 1072 Canadian and Americans, age 18 or older, between April 25 and May 4, as part of a survey about the effects of Covid-19 on consumer behaviour. The margin of error for this survey is ±3 percentage points.

Name of Press Contact: Arthur Cockfield

Date: May 6, 2020

Phone: 6134831772

Email: [email protected]