Shrewsbury retailers are putting town on UK map

A shop owner in The Parade Shopping Centre, Shrewsbury, is celebrating a boost in sales since discovering she had forgotten to click the button to make her new web page go live.

Jen Hawkins of Revive Aromatherapy signed up to All the Little Shops website at the end of last year after hearing from other retailers in the town that it had brought them business from far and wide.

“I thought perhaps I wasn’t getting any sales because there was too much competition around and people couldn’t find me,” she says. “Then I found out I hadn’t clicked to make the site go live, so I clicked and got a sale almost straight away. Amazingly it was from someone in Coventry, who bought a Potters Crouch handmade scented candle that is available through outlets all over the UK. Then I made another sale to someone in Brighton. If you ‘Google’ the name of the candle it brings up my shop in the first ten of 557 listings. I am really thrilled.”

A quarter of Shrewsbury’s independent retailers now have a presence on www.allthelittleshops.co.uk website, which was designed as a ‘Bricks and Clicks’ e-commerce solution to help independent retailers take advantage of the change in consumer shopping patterns. The concept is based on combining the physical ‘bricks’ of a shop with the ‘clicks’ of the internet to give small retailers the potential to maximise their own sales and at the same time drive footfall into town centres.

Thomas Stacey of Sarasvati Yoga-Craft has been on the site for just over four months. “I sell yoga accessories, jewellery and ethnic crafts,” he says. “The on-line presence really works and I have had a lot of people physically come into the shop as a result of it - as well as getting sales from places such as Essex and Cheltenham.”

All the Little Shops  is the brainchild of Shrewsbury entrepreneur and e-marketing expert, Peter Riches. The facility offers independent retailers an internet presence they normally could not afford on their own and enables shoppers to purchase goods from any number of shops and pay for them together through a single secure payment gateway. Since its launch last year All the Little Shops has captured the interest of 30 town centre management groups across the UK.

Speaking about its success Mr Riches said: “There are a lot of online companies out there that have no substance whatsoever. Purchasers can’t take things back if they are the wrong size, colour or quality and they worry about not really knowing who they are dealing with. Trust is becoming an increasingly important factor of internet trading, so if you can use your shop asset and combine it with an internet presence you have a very strong service offer.”

“What most independent retailers do not have is the knowledge, finances or time to maximise that opportunity and that is why we developed All the Little Shops. ATLS puts independent retailers on a level playing field with their national competitors and, through add-ons such as printable vouchers for redemption in the shop, drives footfall back into the high street for the benefit of retailers and the community as a whole. This scheme helps town centres and independent retailers to help themselves.”

Independent shops can register free by visiting www.allthelittleshops.co.uk/shrewsbury

Each All the Little Shops website is set up for independent retailers to use either as an online shop or as a catalogue. Products can be changed and updated by the shop owners who can also access online reports and receive optional text alerts when an e–sale is made. Every retailer has equal exposure as a new shop is featured every time the web page is refreshed. The flexibility of the site is such that it suits large and small towns alike.

For further information please contact Peter Riches on: 01743 875015 or 07768 000008 or email peter@allthelittleshops.co.uk

<< back