| Pasta Mercato is one example of a Hamilton small business leveraging data to accelerate their business! Pasta Mercato, a grocery and takeout shop based in Hamilton’s west end accessed My Main Street support through the Hamilton Business Centre. By working with a dedicated Main Street Ambassador, companies in the program gain access to market research for their neighborhood which helps inform business decision-making. Based on the data, Pasta Mercato’s founders, Roman and Melanie Kremnev, learned “that their customers were interested in higher-quality product – and had the budget to spend on it. So they invested in better coffee equipment and ingredients, and their consumers responded by spending an average of 15 per cent to 20 per cent more per cheque.” Using this new-found knowledge and increased revenue, Pasta Mercato is now expanding into the storefront next door and introducing more hot food and drinks options, launching new pasta-making classes and spearheading a coffee loyalty program. The My Main Street Program launched in 2021 by the Canadian Urban Institute and the Economic Developers Council of Ontario with a $23-million investment from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. The aim was to revitalize cities’ economies by providing small businesses with market research including demographic, spending, mobility, and media behaviours of residents within their local trade area. In 2022, the Hamilton Business Centre served over 367 local businesses and conducted a total of 855 visits with small businesses. In addition, they were able to issue 57 accelerator grants for a total of $570K to fund actions and next steps related to the data insights. For the full Globe and Mail article read: Canadian small businesses are expanding – with a little help from data – The Globe and Mail For more details on the Hamilton’s My Main Street programming visit: My Main Street Local Business Accelerator – Hamilton Business Centre (investinhamilton.ca) |