An Inside Look at Native
The Native team is an impressive group of people with varying backgrounds who have come together with one goal in mind: changing the world. Simple right? How can a small company based in rural Rainsville, Alabama, possibly make a noticeable difference?
For Native, the power to improve the area they live in lies in the hands of local businesses. The Native team recognizes the growing need for local business. Native has developed an app that can assist small businesses by connecting them to their customers via their smartphones.
The team has already begun its journey to bettering local economies starting in DeKalb and Jackson counties. The Native Rewards app offers merchants the tools they need to reach out to new customers and examine data about their current customers which has never been available to them before.
Basically, the Native Rewards app is a simple-to-use tool that rewards customers for shopping locally. The app also allows small businesses an in-depth look at a collection of horizontal data which allows them to learn about their customers and to target others in order to gain new or repeating customers. Just a simple scan at the time of any purchase from any Native Merchant is all it takes.
Being a Native Merchant can be very beneficial for any small business because it offers a comprehensive view of their customers that they’ve not had access to before. And, with chances to win money every week and access to exclusive coupons to their favorite stores, the Native Rewards app is a must-have for customers.
The Native team has a heart for small town, rural, local business.
As Ryan Tramel of Native states, “We’re from a rural place. Local is what we’re about.”
Ryan also explains that each of the representatives of Native has had personal experience with the operations of small business whether through family members or individually.
“When you go to a locally owned store, it’s got a different feel than if you shop at a chain store. It’s valuable to a community to have a lot of local businesses because it brings a different spark,” says Ashley Doufexis about her heart for local business.
“For me it started out, ‘How do you help a rural area like this?’” Joseph Mayes explains. “When you shop with larger franchise businesses a lot of your money gets taken out of the local community, but if you shop with small businesses it stays and recirculates into the community and makes the whole place better. That’s what we’re trying to help with.”
The founders of Native have an understanding of the need for local business which makes them the perfect team to take on the mission. Native knows. Native understands. And most importantly, Native wants to help.
The idea for Native came about while Ryan Tramel and Joseph Mayes were working several years ago for Horace Clemmons, now Native’s primary investor. The goal was to think of a way to help local economy. Joseph says their driving question was simply, “How can we help?” After coming to the table with a proposal to start the Native app, Ryan and Joseph set to work on building the company while Horace began pushing the idea of adding some valuable partners to the team.
Soon after Horace’s suggestions, Jordan and Ashley Doufexis came on board inspired and equipped with the skills that the Native team needed. During the development stages, Ryan Tramel met with potential merchants with a simple legal pad to sell an app that the investors couldn’t even look at. Impressively, Ryan’s determination paid off and Native has taken off with tremendous success in assisting local businesses.
As with everything, starting a business inevitably comes with obstacles. Developing the app was a long process full of back-and-forth conversations with developers. Currently, Native has new updates in the works that will provide even more resources and features for merchants and users alike.
“We wish the process would go faster, but the redesign has to be done the right way,” says Jordan Doufexis describing the process.
Another challenge is getting merchants and customers to make Native a part of their everyday shopping routine. To get a lot of benefit from the app, it’s important for the merchants and users to be consistent with it. In the future Native hopes to help with this by creating kiosks that will be placed in Native merchant stores which will be easy to use and will be initiated by customers. The Native team is full of perseverance and ambition. Obstacles for them are just challenges they are ready to take on.
The Native mission is to become the standard for all things small business. From a humble start, Native has grown to be an essential tool for its dedicated merchants and users. The company will continue to grow and adapt with the ever-changing technology. Native plans to spread all over the country to assist small businesses everywhere. The Native team will change the world one small business at a time.
You can download the Native Rewards app, HERE.
