Ottawa’s Wellington Butchery builds on a family pedigree five-generations strong – a line of master butchers who first owned shops in Vienna from 1868. Master butcher Joel Orlik and partner Barb Schwartz serve their community with the highest quality products.
Their team is all about prime cuts and fine ingredients, served in-person with a smile. Building a stronger online presence was on the to-do list, but they weren’t quite sure where and how to start.
The pandemic made the need for that online presence critical. They turned to Digital Main Street (DMS) for its Digital Transformation Grant funding and the professional support to master their learning curve.
As part of their Digital Transformation Plan, they worked with a social media expert to develop a three-month social media and a digital media advertising campaign, engage in Search Engine Marketing (SEM), and revamp their existing website to better support e-commerce. The immediate goal is to increase year-over-year sales and online orders by 10 per cent.
“The DMS tools and training were amazing, and they gave us confidence to move forward,” Barb said. “We learned so much! The DMS grant helped us to get some professional help to get our digital presence established. With all of the aspects of a small business that you need to manage, DMS made it much easier to understand how to navigate social media and how a digital presence could complement our business.”
The Digital Main Street program has been further extended through funding from FedDev Ontario and the Ontario Ministry for Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade (MEDJCT). The new round of funding includes $42.5 million from the Government of Canada’s Regional Relief and Recovery Fund, a national recovery initiative delivered by Canada’s regional development agencies. With $7.45 million from Ontario, this combined federal and provincial project will strengthen Ontario’s economic capacity for innovation, entrepreneurship and collaboration, and will promote the development of a strong and diversified Ontario economy. For more information, please visit digitalmainstreet.ca/ontariogrants
