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New Website Puts W.Va. Businesses Online

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By Stacy Jacobson, Gilmer, Harrison and Lewis County Reporter - email

  • New Website Puts W.Va. Businesses Online

  • Stacy first joined WBOY as an intern reporter in early 2010. She enjoyed her experience and meeting the people of North Central West Virginia so much that she decided to return as a full-time reporter.
QUIET DELL -

Iris Wickenhofer manages West Virginia Heritage Crafts in Harrison County. It's a quaint store, with a history lesson built in, and it only sells West Virginia-made goods.

"We are proud of our culture," Wickenhofer said.

West Virginia Heritage Crafts and other state vendors want to show off their stuff, and there are many people out there who want to support them.

But Paul Thompson found a problem: access.

He thought he came up with the solution: a new website called OUR-WV.com.

"It's an Internet shopping mall for West Virginia handmade products," Thompson said.

"It will give people one more way. The generation that is out there now is very Internet-literate," Wickenhofer said.

For now, West Virginia Heritage Crafts will only sell certain textiles on the website like hand-knit scarves and wraps. But soon, it hopes to expand its inventory, just as the website hopes to do as a whole.

Thompson called it an online Tamarack of sorts. But he knows not everyone who wants to buy the stuff - like jewelry, art and books - is always in West Virginia. He wanted users to know it's there for gifts, furniture and anything else they want.

"It connects people to the community. We're hoping this will be an economic boom to the state and the local economy," he said.

"We will be reaching a layer of clients that we never have before," Wickenhofer said.

If you have a business that you'd like to show on OUR-WV.com, you can contact the web developers through the website.