CORNING, NY (WENY) - The Corning Area Chamber of Commerce announced an online shopping platform Wednesday morning. The e-commerce platform was launched in partnership with Corning’s Gaffer District and Chemung Canal Trust Company. 

Shop Corning provides the community with local shopping options at their fingertips. The website allows any local business registered to sell its services or products remotely. The website was created to help small businesses stay open, even in a COVID-filled world. 

President of Corning’s Chamber of Commerce Denise Maxa felt this was a major factor in launching the platform. She expressed the benefit the community has from the website. 

“We wanted to give them the tool to not only reach their current customers but be able to expand and be able to find new customers,” Maxa said. “No matter what's going on in the world, they'll be prepared.” 

Maxa worked closely with Coleen Fabrizi on the project. Fabrizi, the Executive Director of Corning’s Gaffer District, felt the website would draw more consumers towards Downtown Corning’s shopping scene. 

“People love to shop local,” Fabrizi started. “They love to come here and pamper themselves, and, you can still do all of that by shopping on the Shop Corning site. I just can't wait for people to discover it and just realize it's a wonderful addition to what they already have by being in this community.” 

Chemung Canal Trust Company is a leading partner in the project. Vice President & Director of Marketing at Chemung Scott Heffner was happy to help the local demographic. 

“As we all know the last year has been really difficult, especially for businesses,” Heffner said. “For us to be able to give them a new platform to reach customers, not just locally, but across the country who then are still able to shop local... it's just a really exciting opportunity to support the businesses even more.” 

For more information on the services available, please visit the full Shop Corning page here.