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Shop online, shop local and get your shopping delivered

  • by JW

A local shopping app for Sidmouth?

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Yesterday, the District Council’s overview committee considered how to help our struggling town centers:

Agenda for Overview Committee on Thursday, 12th November, 2020, 6.00 pm – East Devon

They had been intending to commission an ‘Our Towns’ Study – but this has been abandoned, basically due to events. Instead of the ‘Our Towns’ study, Overview recommended to Cabinet as follows:

‘’ Recommend to cabinet £50k is diverted to assist the Economic development team to work with our key coastal and market towns, including Cranbrook, to include councils and key business stakeholders & investors to better understand challenges, opportunities, and aspirations of each town and work collaboratively to attract funding and support businesses through the covid pandemic and beyond.’’

121120 Our Towns update final.pdf

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One idea to help our high streets might be to have a local delivery service:

Should Sidmouth have its own e-trike service? Press reports – Vision Group for Sidmouth

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There are other ways to help local shops get their goods to customers – and there is plenty of advice out there:

How to Get Consumers to Shop Local

10 Strategies to Encourage Your Customers to Shop Local – Chamber of Commerce KW

How To Encourage Your Customers To Buy Local

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But if local shops can provide the same convenience as the likes of Amazon, then they might be able to compete with online shopping – and, again, there are tips galore:

8 Ways Brick-and-Mortar Retailers Can Compete With Amazon

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And in particular, that might mean getting technological too:

How to create a shopping app like Amazon or even better? : Web and Mobile Development Blog – MindK.com

Buy Online, Pick-Up in Store (BOPIS)

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There is already one outfit doing just that – and it’s very much in operation in small towns around the country, for example:

ShopAppy launches in five North Yorkshire towns | York Press

MUMBLER Reviews… ShopAppy | Wharfedale & Craven Mumbler

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This is how ShopAppy works:

Shopappy | Your Local Shops all in one place | ShopAppy

(15) ShopAppy.com #WhereYouShopMatters (@ShopAppyUK) / Twitter

(2) ShopAppy | Facebook

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Plus a video:

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ShopAppy – how it works – YouTube