Small Green Business Websites are Personalizing the Face of E-Shopping

Posted on February 26th, 2008 by swhitley@whitleymedia.com

Small Green Business Websites are Personalizing the Face of E-Shopping

The Greater Green is just one of many small businesses that are revolutionizing the internet marketplace. In a time when “one-click” shopping is becoming more and more standard, the old-fashioned values of providing personal customer service, hand-selected products, a personal connection, and a place where customers are still recognized by name seem gone forever. But browse the Internet a little closer these days, and you may find more entrepreneurs like Joanna Livieratos, whose mission it is to bring those values back to the forefront of the American shopping experience.

Grand Junction, MI — February 26, 2008

There’s a new trend in business these days, and it is debunking the old American adage, “Bigger is better”. Tired of masive shopping websites that often have no customer service phone number, or an automated message system that is nearly impossible to navigate through, and searching for a more meaningful connection with the businesses they choose to frequent, many shoppers are choosing to go small, go green, and go with a purpose.

Small green businesses are providing consumers with a more fulfilling shopping experience, with products that do social and environmental good, a friendly and accesible team of employees, and products that are both safer and healthier.

The Greater Green is one such shop. More than just a place to buy home products, The Greater Green features only items that have been hand-selected and thoroughly reviewed by the owner, Joanna Livieratos. On her website, she discusses the positives, and if there are any, is honest about the negatives, of the products she carries, and offers extensive links to articles and other resources. “The most important thing you can do as a consumer is to be informed. Once you have knowledge, it is easy to make positive choices about what is right for you.”

The Greater Green is just one of many green businesses that are seeking to compete with major corporations in the ever-expanding Internet commerce market. Constrained by small advertising budgets, small businesses cannot compete by placing large and readily-visible ads, as can the larger corporations, so they are seeking to attract customers through other routes. Excellent customer service “with a face” is one offering that these businesses focus on, as well as handmade and harder-to-find, higher-quality products. Green businesses also offer environmental and social stewardship, featuring fair trade and organic items, responsible business practices, alternative energy consumption, recycled packaging, and supporting their communities in ways that many larger corporations have forgotten. This lets consumers contribute to positive social change simply through their purchasing power. It is a win-win situation when shoppers choose these small, green businesses: consumers choose healthier and safer products, small businesses prosper, and communities are strengthened.

Many green business owners started their businesses out of a desire for “something more” in life. At age 30, exhausted from a teaching career that left her very little time for outside activities, and desperately seeking a greener way of living, Joanna Livieratos and her husband left Chicago to live on a 20 acre hobby farm in Southwest Michigan. They had both quit their jobs to make the move, which was going to be a new journey in and of itself, and needed to come up with a plan to make a living off of their land.

Joanna Livieratos found herself dreaming of an online shop that was friendly, personal, and provided meaningful, healthy products, of packages packed with care and a hand-written note inside, of chatting with customers on the phone about the differences between two similar products, of selling only her favorite products that she could personally attest to. The mega-shopping e-marketplaces that have become so popular were definitely not what she was imagining. If she was going to start a business, it would have to be something different entirely.

The result was the creation of a new green living business, The Greater Green, that features hand-selected, natural, safe products for homes, including cleaning, beauty, culinary, and garden items. Her mission was simple: provide extensively researched reviews of products that she has actually used and loves, easily accesible customer service, and a personal connection to all of her customers, while maintaining a commitment to the environment, to her community, and to the health of all those who share this planet.

“I know there are people out there like me, who want something more from their shopping experience. We want our money to make a difference, and the things we buy to positively impact our life and the lives of those around us. We want to feel important, and appreciated, and knowledgeable. We want businesses to be leaders in our community, and to be able to respect business owners because of their values and commitments. Those values guided the creation of The Greater Green.”

QUOTES

Quotes from Joanna Livieratos, Owner of The Greater Green

“I believe that consumers are growing tired of hearing that our toys, make-up, and even the food we eat is unsafe and being recalled. We have choices with our buying power, and those choices will ultimately affect our environment, our communities, and our own health. Green businesses offer a way to enhance all three simply by purchasing higher-quality, safer, and more sustainable products.”

“Green products feel good- they work, they don’t poison our water and land, and they are safe for our families to use.”

“I keep hearing from customers who are tired of doing business with a faceless corporation. They want to be heard, and they want to be answered, and they want to give their money to someone who cares about them and cares about their community.”

“I’ve encountered many people who were able to get their asmtha, allergies, and other physical ailments under control simply by eliminating synthetic toxins from their homes. Those toxins pollute the air quality, leave behind toxic residues, and are a danger to our children and pets, who tend to end up with things in their mouth more often. Green products are safe, free of toxins, and are often just as effective, if not more so, than synthetic counterparts.”

“Chemicals are cheap, and so they end up in many common household products. We as consumers have to stop and think about what we are paying for. If we are saving money but putting ourselves at risk for cancers, skin irritations, reproductive disorders, contaminated water, and a host of other problems, is it really such a good deal?”

“I wanted to feel better about my life. I wanted to live a life that wasn’t polluting our land and water, creating immense garbage, and exploiting cheap global labor. I wanted to eat real foods that were actually full of nutrients, instead of foods shipped thousands of miles before they were even ripe. I wanted to learn about issues that affected my health and my planet. And I wanted to share what I learned along the way with as many people as possible. That is why I started The Greater Green.”

About Joanna Livieratos- After graduating from The University of Miami with a BS in Biology and a BA in English Literature, Joanna moved to Japan, where she taught English at a Japanese Junior High School in Gunma for three years. When she returned to the US, she received a Masters in Teaching from National Louis, and taught elementary school for three years in Chicago before moving to a small farm in Michigan with her husband. They are currently selling organic vegetables at Farmers Markets, raising chickens, and selling natural, safe home products on their website, The Greater Green. This summer they intend to add Nubian dairy goats. Joanna also writes a weekly blog, The Adventures in Eco-Living, is a This Next Maven for Green Living, and is a self-taught web designer.

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One Response to 'Small Green Business Websites are Personalizing the Face of E-Shopping'

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  1. Brody H. said,

    on February 27th, 2008 at 10:35 am

    Has anyone reading this press release checked out www.openeco.org yet? They have a lotd of solutions for calculating your carbon footprint and ways to reduce them. Just thought I’d spread the word to those who took the time to read this insightful article.

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