Virtual shopping experience

Lafayette businessmen give consumers Internet buying options

Two Lafayette businessmen are building one of the newest malls in the region, a visit to MegaEMart is only a click into the Internet.

Levi-Joseph Landry and Ted S. Tremblay have constructed Acadianas only virtual reality mall for area shoppers. But you wont find big-name stores or chains.

We have geared this to the business that may not have thousands of dollars to advertise or create their own Web page," Landry said. We are looking at a very select niche market."

Landry, who at one time managed two hotels in New Orleans, said the name of their company is MegaEMart Virtual Mall. His partner, Tremblay, was at one time with a Lafayette surveying company.

Both said they decided to take this unique action after recognizing a need among small business owners to get their names out to the public ---- and not spend a lot of money in the process.

People looking for specific services or needs can shop from the comfort of their own home," Tremblay said. The larger stores and chains have Web sites and large advertising budgets. The smaller businessman or woman doesnt."

The mall has five clients now, Tremblay said. For Basic service, $50 a month, the two will create a virtual store for their client.

Entering the virtual mall, a shopper will click on the business card of the company there. Landry said this will cause a pop-up to appear carrying photos of the store or the products being sold.

In addition, the pop-up will have all the information about the company that the owner wants to release," Landry said. I think this will continue to evolve as time goes by, but for now we are very comfortable with the market we have identified."

A visitor to that virtual store will either have contact information for them to call and make a purchase or buy a product through an online account. Each client has different ways of actually selling their product, Landry said.

We provide them with the vehicle to get their message out to the public," Landry said. Again, it goes back to the market that we have identified."

Like the business itself, their advertising campaign has been low-keyed as well.

We talk to people we meet," Tremblay said. We leave our business cards and hope someone will call us back."

Tremblay said he and Landry are not sure how big the virtual mall will become. New ideas are already being implemented as we speak.

I guess there really is no limit," he said. I would love to see a time when we have hundreds of stores for visitors to shop at from the safety and comfort of their home."

For additional information you may contact Megaemart by calling 337-288-8233.