WINCHESTER City Council is seeking feedback over an e-commerce opportunity for independent businesses.

The city council is investigating ways it can support businesses on the High Street and other locations in the city and market towns such as Alresford and Bishop’s Waltham and in particularly independent businesses directly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic

In light of the impacts from national restrictions, the council says it is aware that many businesses are finding innovative ways to reach their customers and clients, including the development of online presence, click and collect and delivery options.

The council wants to offer the opportunity for them to operate in a collaborative way as part of a new e-commerce platform.

It would allow the consumer to purchase items remotely from a range of independent retailers from across the district and take delivery of these via one co-ordinated service.

In an email, the council says: “This new ‘virtual high street’ will offer a route to market that we feel would benefit businesses as well as the consumer, offering a simple, one stop shop, particularly during the current national restrictions but also reflective of changing consumer buying habits.

“Subject to a procurement process, we aim to fund the set up and launch costs of the e-commerce platform and offer businesses access to this free of charge for the first six months. It is understood in this period the model will become self-sustaining through small charges to its partner businesses and consumers going forward.”

The council would wrap a marketing and engagement campaign around it to stimulate consumer engagement. Whilst it will be a standalone, Winchester district branded platform, it would benefit from ongoing marketing activities undertaken by the operators as well as council’s tourism team. This would include resident and visitor traffic generated from the popular VisitWinchester.co.uk site as well as associated social media. This would support the marketing efforts of the individual businesses involved alongside the activities of other stakeholder groups.

We have looked at providers in this marketplace and one such example is Click It Local. Click here to watch a short video and take a look at one of their established local platforms here.

Other providers include virtual high street, and the provider who developed the Borough Basket, amongst others. If you are aware of other providers you would like us to consider please do get in touch.

We need to deliver this project quickly; attracting a number of quotes from relevant providers, selecting a successful bidder and working with them and local businesses and associated stakeholders to achieve a live platform over the coming weeks.

I would like to re-iterate that this forms part of a portfolio of activity we have already undertaken to support businesses on the high street, including our Rediscover Winchester on your doorstep, stay local shop local/on-line campaigns and our dedicated films which will continue to drive footfall to the high street alongside this virtual initiative. In addition to this we are about to launch our dedicated business support programme specifically for this sector, details to follow shortly.

Finally, I would be grateful, on behalf of the business/es you represent, if you could let me know:-  If you would be interested in supporting/promoting/actively engaging in this initiative  If you are aware of any similar solutions already in existence across the district  If you are aware of any other e-commerce products that you would like us to consider  Any other thoughts you have on how we can work collectively to support independent businesses on high streets and other similar cluster locations across the district  Any questions you might have

Please Contact Andrew Gostelow, service lead economy and tourism as soon as possible at agostelow@winchester.gov.uk.