Depends on how big the town is actually. I have seen many offline booklets full of coupons. The good thing about these booklets is - its easy to track the sales coming from these coupons. And many shop owners actually pay money to be included in the coupon booklet.

I don't see any reason why the same concept won't work online. Just have a system in place which can help the shoppers track where the sales are coming from.

It could be as crude as a pdf file which the visitors can print out and use it as a coupon. And then go to the local shops and use the coupons.
Or it could be sophisticated with a backend system which tracks visitors every moves and directly links to the online shopping cart of the sjop owner - and lets the shop owner know where the visitor came from and how much did he buy.

The hardest part of this business is - you will have to target shop owners and shoppers - both separately. And you will need a good response from both these people. If you have less shoppers - the shop owners won't get a good response. If there are not many shop owners advertised on your site - shoppers won't visit your site. So to break this circle - I would try giving away free advertising of shop owners for a month or so. Build trust with the shoppers - show them your site has value. And then start charging the shop owners after a month. By the end of the month - if you have been successful - the shop owners will already have tasted some success through the listings on your site - and wouldn't mind to pay you.

Best of luck.


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