Alana Baxter had been working with small businesses in the Cochrane area for some time, as she’s watched the e-commerce industry explode.
Now, with the threat of US tariffs and more people talking about buying local, her Calgary-area startup Fitzba Technologies, seems to be the ideal fit to encourage people to buy local.
Baxter said that the natural instinct of most small businesses is to try to compete in the online world by having a website, which is good, she said. The problem is, there are relatively fewer brick-and-mortar shops competing with thousands of online retailers for consumer dollars.
“So, for a small mom-and-pop shop, there’s just no way that they can outbid the Amazons and the brands themselves that are selling direct to consumers these days,” Baxter said.
“This is kind of a way to help those local, smaller retailers band together so that they have that assortment and convenience to offer a one-stop place for the consumer to shop their stores just as easily as we go and search for whatever we want on Amazon.”
The idea behind Fitzba is for local retailers to sign on to a small business aggregation website, where they can put their products online along with others. Consumers can choose from a variety of product and service providers in their area.
The platform provides retailers free profiles, allowing local shoppers to identify what they need and then connecting them to local businesses.
Baxter herself has a degree in computer engineering and began her career as a programmer at an aviation startup in Calgary. At that point, she started to fall in love with data and why and how people were using that information. That led to product management and product leadership, and then to wholesale sales to retail stores.
“I sort of fell out of love with the problem of selling more jackets and into love with the problem of all this business is being directed away from our communities to the more convenient, easier solutions, like Amazon and big box,” she said.
“I use those services too, but I don’t want to live in a world where the only place I can shop is stuff that’s being bought by somebody in a corporate office somewhere on the other side of the world. Whereas the owners of small retail shops take such care in what they bring in and sell and stand behind, and they have that subject matter expertise to fit my kids in their ski boots or sponsor my kids’ soccer team.”
Alberta Catalyzer Velocity program for guidance, mentorship
Baxter began proving the Fitzba concept in the Cochrane area, with nearly 50 stores on the site. It’s a relatively seamless process for retailers, where their point of sale and inventory systems integrate with the Fitzba site to provide consumers with easy access.
They’re attracting both retailers and consumers, with more than 25,000 people visiting the site each month – and growing.
Baxter said she came to the Alberta Catalyzer – Velocity program for both guidance and mentorship from the experts on offer. The Velocity program has given her and Fitzba structure.
“I would say, also the accountability of just as a solo-preneur. It gets lonely.
“The other side of it is I have never taken this journey at this early of a stage in product development. I came into the journey feeling pretty confident in my skills as a product manager and product development, and it’s a humbling experience to take something from zero to finding product market fit.”
That’s what she’s fine-tuning, with the goal of expanding the service beyond Cochrane into Calgary neighbourhoods and then beyond.
“I mean, we’re looking at small towns, small cities, and also urban centers, but at this stage in the business, definitely open-minded to home in on a sweet spot of a certain municipality size,” Baxter said.
“It may be that we work really well in smaller towns or smaller cities, but we get lost in the mix in the urban centers, or maybe we’ll have really great traction in the urban centers.”
Join Alberta Catalyzer to fast-track your startup with know-how and expert guidance. Alberta Catalyzer offers merit-based, pre-accelerator programs for early-stage tech entrepreneurs in Alberta at no cost. These programs are developed and delivered by Platform Calgary and Edmonton Unlimited, with support from partners and organizations across the Alberta Innovation Network. They are made possible by the generous support of the Alberta Scaleup and Growth Accelerator Program, run by a consortium led by Alberta Innovates. The consortium includes the Government of Alberta, Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan), The City of Edmonton through Edmonton Unlimited, and the City of Calgary’s Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund allocated $35 million over three years to retain business accelerators. It’s part of the Alberta government’s goal to help create 20,000 jobs and increase technology firm revenue to $5 billion by 2030.
