FirstBank creates ‘the shop’ to boost small biz holiday sales
FirstBank announced the creation of a concept known as “the shop by FirstBank,” a bank-sponsored spot in Plaza Las Américas aimed at supporting eight small businesses in boosting their product sales during this holiday season.
From Dec. 14-24, people who visit the shop by FirstBank’s first edition — located on the first level of Plaza Las Americas between Victoria’s Secret and Sephora — will find jewelry, artworks, candles, soaps, clothing, coffee cookies, dog apparel and accessories and other perfect gifts to give away this holiday.
Small businesses participating in the concept are: Guajíbaro Coffee Shop, GD Cakes, Bella The Shop, Naked Home & Body, Fravier Designs, Rogative, GoBoricua and Woofiao.
“I’m extremely excited about this opportunity that FirstBank has given me to have this spot in Plaza to stimulate my company’s sales during this Christmas season,” said Francisco “Fravier” Umpierre, founder of Diseños Fravier.
“I thank the bank for acting as a business ally and promoting this kind of initiatives aimed at helping small entrepreneurs like me to keep pushing our businesses forward,” said Umpierre, whose company is dedicated to crafting handmade jewelry.
Aysha Issa, FirstBank’s senior vice president of Individual and Small Business Banking, said “small and medium-sized enterprises are the engine of our economy. Each growing company we help to promote has the potential to generate major changes that will have a long-term impact on the island’s financial health. And to be able to contribute to that with our innovation makes us very proud.”
According to Issa, setting up a shop in a mall is a great way to boost a small business. However, she stressed that this strategy could be out of small merchants’ budget when it comes to a high-traffic shopping center such as Plaza Las Américas.
“In our role as a facilitator for our commercial clients, we decided to implement this innovative concept to offer our SME clients a spot in Plaza Las Américas during the busiest time of the year, when they can boost their product sales and increase their income without worrying about the space rent since that’s on us,” Issa said.
