Theme 6
Your local shops and businesses
Strategic objective
A vibrant local economy and shops that are accessible, attractive and a centre of community life.
Key figures
- $1 million net operating cost
- 1,238 members of the Business Boroondara Network
- 1,041 proactive strip shopping centre maintenance inspections completed.
Achievements
Supporting local businesses
Commitment
Support local businesses to advance their use of technology to strengthen their business model and viability.
Project overview
Council developed and facilitated a number of successful, customer-centric social media workshops to educate local retailers in Boroondara.
Council engaged a social media expert to provide one-on-one, personalised mentoring sessions to interested retail centres. Each workshop was tailored to the unique, individual needs of each retailer to learn about:
- Facebook for business
- Instagram for business
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and website statistics
- getting the best from technology in your business
- visual merchandising.
Project aims
Feedback from local businesses and trader associations indicated a shift from traditional approaches to marketing, particularly for retailers. Feedback also revealed that businesses were in need of a personalised approach to suit their individual social media needs.
Project outcomes
The program has been a success, with over 80 per cent of session participants satisfied and 100 sessions undertaken attracting over 1,500 participants from our local business community. Council is working with all local retail precincts to maximise the delivery of this program, now and into the future.
For more information, see On-demand workshops.
Summary of other achievements
- Introduced the new Boroondara Service Crew to the City’s main retail precincts. The new Service Crew undertakes maintenance and cleaning activities, ensuring the quality presentation of the City’s main retail areas.
- Implemented the Christmas in Boroondara program which included installation of 1,035 decorations across all 53 shopping centres.
- Supported local businesses to understand the importance of technology through a combination of initiatives, including free business mentoring, networking and associated information exchange between businesses and through the Experience Collective and Co-Lab programs.
Number of participants in Council's business training activities
Members of the Business Boroondara Network
Challenges
- The evolving Australian retail environment continues to place significant pressure on Boroondara’s shopping centres, particularly with regard to the growth of the online retail sector and recent investment in the expansion of existing 'hard top' centres.
- Council faced difficulty finding civil contractors due to the scale of civil works in the market place.