Best Retail Practices

This program is designed to support small retailers, restaurants and storefront service  businesses in the City with professional counseling and technical assistance in the areas of image and identity for small business, store and restaurant design, retail marketing and promotion including the use of social media tools for retail.

The Best Retail Practices is a two-part program beginning with a 2-hour instructional workshop using over one hundred visual examples of retail best practices. Following the workshop, attendees may apply to be one of twelve participating businesses for the second phase of the program, a free in-store consultation complete with recommendations for improvements in a written report. A micro financing vendor will also be at the workshop offering information on available financing for eligible participants to help make these business improvements.

The program is sponsored by the Mayor’s Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development Office (OSPCD) and is delivered by Christine Moynihan from RetailVisioning. Ms. Moynihan co-founded this program in 2002 and has conducted it for the cities of Cambridge, Lowell, Westfield and Lawrence, MA and Nashua, NH providing information and guidance to help improve over 300 urban, store-front businesses. More than 20 of Somerville’s restaurants and retail stores have participated in the Program.

For more information or to register for the Best Retail Practices workshop please contact David Guzman at 617 625 6600 ext 2546 or dguzman@somervillema.gov

While all are invited, seating is limited and registration is recommended. Attendance at the workshop by a principal of the business is a pre-requisite for the one-on-one technical assistance consultations.