Article by Damon Tucker originally published on June 19, 2020 at damontucker.com. Re-posted here with the author’s permission.
The Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) is launching the Buy Hawaii, Give Aloha initiative to assist local businesses affected by the COVID-19 crisis.
To help Hawaii companies sell Hawaii made products, DBEDT is providing the Buy Hawaii, Give Aloha portal at no cost to local businesses. DBEDT will list products on the Buy Hawaii, Give Aloha site.
- The Buy Hawaii, Give Aloha (BHGA) website will be a portal that will facilitate shopping on your company’s website. The BHGA portal site will only share information about your website and there will be no purchasing or transactions on the BHGA portal site.
- The Buy Hawaii, Give Aloha portal site is open to all manufacturers and marketplaces of Made in Hawaii products with online shopping; however, only products that meet the requirements to be labeled Made in Hawaii set forth in §486-119, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS), may be posted on the BHGA portal site. Companies listing on the Buy Hawaii, Give Aloha portal site should have at least 75% of their total product offering being made in Hawaii, as per §486-119, HRS.
- Your company’s website must have the capability to take and fulfill orders online. All customer inquiries and communication will be directed to your company.
- There is no cost to participate in the Buy Hawaii, Give Aloha portal site.
- DBEDT will conduct a promotional campaign of the Buy Hawaii, Give Aloha portal site first targeting Hawaii consumers. Later, we will expand promotion to mainland and international consumers.
- A soft launch of the BHGA website will be in early July, 2020. The official launch will follow in August, 2020.
How to Register
- Submit one photo and a one sentence description of the featured product(s), a representative photo of your website, and attestment that the product meets the requirements in §486-119, HRS, using the online Participant Registration form.
- Companies listing on the Buy Hawaii, Give Aloha portal site should have at least 75% of their total product offering being made in Hawaii, as per §486-119, HRS.
- Once you submit your registration form, your listing will be reviewed and if approved, uploaded to the portal site. We will notify you via email when your listing goes live.
- If you have any questions, please contact DBEDT by email at dbedt.buy@hawaii.gov.
Be sure to click here to register your business today!
Photo by Chelsey Horne from Pexels
