Thank you to Waverly Kundysek for sharing her experience after registering at The Ivy House, a merchant using Shop Local software for their e-commerce and registry services: 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“We had an amazing experience using the Ivy House Registry website. From start to finish, everything felt seamless, intuitive, and thoughtfully designed... it is a beautiful platform with truly unmatched service!"

~ Waverly Kundysek in TX

Registered at The Ivy House in Dallas, TX

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Read 2,800+

Trivia: What is the best month for wedding registry sales for your store? Answer: Likely March, followed by April. 

We tabulated 2025 sales data from nearly 1,500 indie stores, and found that March through June and August through October are the peak months for wedding registry sales. The months with the lowest sales were November and December. 

Shop Local, an e-commerce platform for indie retailers, reported that it's helping indie stores rank on page one of Google in 56% of states for wedding gift purchases. The findings are based on a recent study that Shop Local conducted regarding wedding registry purchasing. 

Study Findings:

• For 28 state searches, Shop Local Stores appeared on page one of Google. This represents 56% of all states. When just calculating the states in which Shop Local has clients (48), the percentage grows

NEW YORK, NY — March 9, 2026 – Shop Local, the leading wedding registry platform for indie retailers, announced the 2026 Best Wedding Gifts award winners this week.  The honor is presented to the top 100 retailers and top 100 brands in America.  

The top 100 brand finalists included Juliska, Herend, VIETRI, and Costa Nova-Casafina.  The top 100 retail finalists were led by The Ivy House in Dallas, TX; Babcock Gifts in Memphis, TN; P.S. the Letter in Fort Worth, TX; and Friend

Thanks to ChatGPT for this amazing assessment of our business below. I asked it:

"Give me a high-level understanding of what Shop Local’s e-commerce platform is and why retailers and brands use it.

Explain what problem Shop Local exists to solve, who typically gets value from it, and what customers gain by using it. Focus on the business impact and real-world value.

Explain this simply, as if you were summarizing Shop Local to a decision maker who wants the "why" and the "so what" overview. Start

Christofle’s Mood flatware is mentioned as a status item in this weekend’s WSJ. 

Christofle, a Shop Local partner, helps its indie stores sell its prestigious items via our Product Syncing service. 

Vinted, an online retail marketplace for secondhand clothes, reports saving the planet 679 kilotons of CO2 emissions in 2023.  

Quantifying benefits like this can leave a meaningful impression. We do it here at Shop Local, too. 

• Our platform helps indie stores avoid $3.6m a year in labor costs. 
• This equates to saving them 60 employees and 144,000 hours of work. 

These are resources the indie merchants can instead spend on supporting their stores. 

Brands are increasingly hiring “storytellers,” shares the Wall St. Journal. These storytellers are using social media, podcasts, and other novel marketing approaches to share a business’s story. Ironically, earned media, such as the WSJ newspaper (where I read about this trend), is not seen as a leading medium. Print newspaper subscriptions have fallen by 70% since 2005. (I'm a lone holdout: I still get the Times and WSJ each week; I used to get four print papers each day. My poor newspaper

Thanks to SMEG, Jonathan Pearson, Kitchen 2 Table for this showcase highlighting products celebrating America. SMEG and K2T gave away a SMEG refrigerator worth $4,000+ to a lucky merchant that wrote an order in the showroom. 

SMEG is a Shop Local partner that helps its indie stores more easily sell its items. 

Retailers: You're Invited 💌
Join us for a live webinar on Wednesday, February 11th, at 2:00 pm ET.  

Why Join?

Discover what your Success Summary reveals about your store’s performance.

• Which customer spent the most online.
• Which registry generated the most sales.
• Which brand and product sold the best.
• How many orders you received.
• How your sales compared to other indie stores.

Using the insights above, you can create new sales opportunities in 2026. 

 How to RSVP:

• Please RSVP by emailing

In November, Syncing brands raised their prices on 817 products, producing an average price increase of 7%. If a retailer didn’t make these changes, these price increases would cost their store 7%.

Thankfully, indie stores using Shop Local have the updated price for these 817 products. They don’t lose 7%. The stores receive the updated prices instantly via our Syncing service.

About the Syncing Service
Syncing is a service for retailers that reduces labor costs for website maintenance. Retailers

We’ve probably all had one of Taco Bell’s crazy inventions, including a Cheesy Street Chalupa, Doritos Locos Taco, Nacho Fries, or Baja Blast. A recent Wall St. Journal article shares that Taco Bell’s Chief Food Innovation Officer, Liz Matthews, often spends years creating a single new item for the menu. (Read the full WSJ article here.) Sometimes these items are available for a brief time only, aka they’re a limited-time offer (LTO). 

This article made me wonder, “What are Shop Local’s LTOs

This time of year is when local shops need our support the most. Here are 6 easy ways that can make a big impact:

• Choose to shop local for gifts
• Attend their holiday events
• Share their holiday posts on social media
• Refer family and friends to their store
• Leave a review
• Support their wedding registry

At Shop Local, we’re proud to help indie stores shine. Let’s make this their strongest season yet. ❄️

Kudos to For Heaven's Sake in Beaumont, TX, for their gold-star ⭐ communication when customers leave reviews.  

Stores that stay engaged with reviewers build trust, boost visibility, and turn happy customers into loyal ones — and For Heaven’s Sake is absolutely nailing it. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Oct. 17, 2025 at 1:50 PM EST

"I love working with FHS. The staff is so communicative. They let me know exactly what to expect as far as delivery times and are extremely helpful in general. They go above and beyond

Thank you to Wanda Needell for sharing her experience after buying a gift from The Fisherman's Wife, a merchant using Shop Local software for their e-commerce and registry services: 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Five stars. Absolutely no problems navigating the website or purchase of the gift. Appreciate the follow up texts regarding update on the order. Thank you.”

~ Wanda Needell in NC

Shopped at The Fisherman’s Wife in Wilmington, NC

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Read 200+ reviews from The Fisherman's Wife's

I read about a WNBA t-shirt and it inspired this concept for our industry:

Small Business

Measure Us by Feats 

Not Square Feet 

This t-shirt design reminds me of our Bridge ethos poster. A few year ago, we made a poster with crossed out words. 

First read:
There are millions of indie stores in the world who don’t get to succeed online. They get ripped off by web designers and coders, pay more in local taxes than big tech companies, don’t have access to cheap money from Wall St. (

Thank you to Caroline Bodiford for sharing her experience after buying a gift from The Pine Needle, a merchant using Shop Local software for their e-commerce and registry services: 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“Exceptionally easy to navigate, even for an 83-year-old, not so tech-savvy grandma.”

~ Caroline Bodiford in GA

Shopped at The Pine Needle In Dalton, GA

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Read 80+ reviews from The Pine Needle's customers:
https://thepineneedle.myshoplocal.com/reviews.cfm 

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About

We’re excited to share that we’ll be hosting a series of upcoming webinars  🧑‍🏫. The webinars will train brands and distributors on updating their accounts, growing their networks, and increasing sales overall.

Calendar:

Tuesday, October 21st / 10:30 AM ET

5 Best Practices for Uploading Products

We’ll show you how to:

• Access pages to add items and images.
• Format products correctly (e.g., Collections, Departments, etc.).
• Ensure your products look their best so you and your retailers sell more.

&

Join us on Wednesday, October 15th, at 10:30 am ET for a live 20-minute wedding registry webinar.  

Gain a clear understanding as our coaches guide you step-by-step through the Wedding Registry Overview page.  

• A quick overview of your registry performance.
• Learn how to maximize wedding events and take full advantage of marketing tools.
• Ensure your registrants link from their wedding website to their registry correctly -- increasing your sales. 

BONUS: Join 3 or more webinars in our

Join us this Wednesday, October 8th, at 10:30 am ET for a live 20-minute wedding registry webinar.  

Our coaches will walk you through everything you need to know about handling wedding registry credit.

• Learn why managing registry credit online is beneficial to your business.
• Discover best practices for viewing and managing your registry credit.
• Save time and money with built-in accounting tools. 

BONUS: Join 3 or more webinars in our Wednesday Webinar series and get a Starbucks Gift Card.