Now You Can Shop Local Boutiques Directly On Yelp

There’s a new e-commerce player in town, and it’s surprisingly a name we all know–Yelp. Women’s Wear Daily is reporting that the review site has teamed up with boutique shopping aggregator Shoptiques to allow customers to shop clothing boutiques directly while browsing Yelp.

Yelp described what to expect on its blog today, writing:

This is not just a way to avoid the crush of humans crowding your local mall (although that’s a definite benefit), our new partnership makes it so easy to support cool local businesses (like Olive & Bette’s in NYC or y&i Clothing Boutique in San Francisco) and find something uniquely you. Read reviews and highlights from the Yelp community for each boutique, browse their inventory in a sleek shopping interface, add to your cart, purchase, and get it delivered to your door, all on Yelp.

According to Yelp, this was the natural next step for the brand, considering that 23 percent of its reviewed businesses are currently fashion retailers.

The partnership will begin its rollout today, going live with 200 businesses, and thousands of boutiques will be available to shop by the end of the year.

This has the potential to be a huge boon for independent retailers, some of which have struggled to keep up with the growth of online shopping. Supporting local businesses from the comfort of our couch pretty much seems like a win, win.

Will you be shopping on Yelp? Share your thoughts in the comments!