The Muskoka Store Offers Innovative New Ways to Send Holiday Gifts This year

Gravenhurst ON - With the COVID-19 crisis growing even more harrowing during the holiday gift-giving season, most Ontarians feel like they have to make a choice: Buy their gifts online, or support local businesses.

This year, The Muskoka Store wants to help you do both! They've created a new shopping and gift-giving experience that lets you safely shop online, while still keeping your money in the local economy.

The Muskoka store is providing a different kind of gift card. It offers a unique shopping experience that allows your recipient to log onto The Muskoka Store's website, and then take part in a guided video tour of what's hot this season. The video is powered by VStore, which creates a completely shoppable video and allows browsers to click on, and purchase items as they pop up on the screen.

"A lot of people assume that it's Amazon-or-nothing for holiday shopping this year. COVID Red zones are expanding every day, so they feel that they have to buy from Amazon to check off everyone on their list," said Bruce Clark, the CEO and Founder of rBux, VStore's parent company.

"We want to show people that it doesn't have to be that way. And we want to show local businesses how to reach holiday shoppers online. "

The VStore platform was also recently recognized as one of Shopify's top apps, and profiled on their homepage as one of their staff's top picks.

Clark has been creating game-changing shopping innovations for the last 40 years. Most recently, he has been leading the charge to help ensure that local people can still buy from local businesses during the pandemic. His focus right now is helping small businesses merge their online shopping experience with their traditional in-store experience.

His first innovation was rBux, a way to help local businesses promote their brands by leveraging local influencers. It's an innovative digital referral system that helps people earn rewards when they refer someone to a product that is purchased from a local retailer.

"Small businesses are the backbone of this community and we want to do everything in our power to ensure they can stay open for business," said Clark.

"Even if you've always been a classic brick and mortar business, we want to try to help you keep your storefront, while also showing you how to reach online customers."

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About VStore Shoppable Videos
VStore is the answer to static and boring online experiences. It empowers you to add interactivity to your videos and make them shoppable! In other words, customers can buy directly from the video as your products naturally appear on the screen.

About rBux
rBux is an online community of shoppers and sellers who are passionate about their products. rBux enables online stores to connect with their customers, and help reward customers for conversations that lead to sales. By placing a Refer button on your online store, customers can share products easily with friends, and provide them with rewards when their referrals lead to sales.

About The Muskoka Store
The history of The Muskoka Store is steeped in tradition. It was founded in 1979 by cottager and windsurfing fanatic Bruce Clark, thanks to a clever tip from his mother Barb. During a typical Friday drive from the city, Barb spotted a small gourmet food shop for rent on Highway 11 and told Bruce it would be a perfect fixed location for his van-based windsurfing sales business.

Without hesitation, Bruce and Nancy took his mother's advice and moved the contents of his van into the shop. The Muskoka Store, originally named Muskoka Windsurfing, was born.

The Muskoka Store has since evolved into a true cottage outfitter with over 45,000 square feet of items carefully chosen to enhance Muskoka traditions both historical and current.