During the Covid-19 public health restrictions many businesses had to quickly reorient to a new way of trading in order to sustain their businesses. For many this meant pivoting to offering their products and services online, taking orders by phone or operating collection or delivery services. But, after all this effort, how to get the word out that they were open for business was the next hurdle that had to be cleared.
In the midst of the pandemic, Diarmuid Slattery spotted this problem in his local area and, deducing that many businesses were experiencing similar problems at the time, he wondered how he could help and, from that thought, the idea of Shoplocal.irish was born
Shoplocal.irish is a new initiative to assist small businesses which have reoriented to address new customer demands by offering online or telephone ordering and collection or delivery of orders. This online platform allows users to identify which businesses operate these services in their area which was particularly important when the 2km radius restrictions were in place.
Over 300 businesses in north Dublin have registered on the Shoplocal.irish website since it was launched in April 2020. A range of businesses use the platform to promote their new offerings and services in Food & Drink, Arts & Crafts, Books & Stationery, Cafes & Restaurants, Garden, Health & Beauty, and Home and Lifestyle.
The platform provides these businesses with a strong collective marketing profile, expanding their reach in new key target audiences. Shoplocal.irish also has a strong Instagram following with registered businesses promoting their products to new audiences.
Diarmuid Slattery, the creator of Shoplocal.irish, outlines what this social enterprise aims to achieve: “I became aware during lockdown of local businesses responding to local people’s needs when restricted to within 2km of their homes when I discovered that our local butcher was taking orders by phone for delivery. I began to wonder how many other businesses were doing the same. There was no one place for people to find out about what businesses in their locality offered these services and so myself and a programmer decided to build Shoplocal.irish as a not-for-profit enterprise to help.”
With financial and promotional support from Fingal County Council and mentoring from Fingal LEO, Diarmuid Slattery successfully launched the platform in record time with over 100 businesses registering on the website in the first two weeks.
Mayor of Fingal, Cllr. David Healy said: “Fingal County Council is delighted to support this social enterprise which promotes the Shop Local concept and helps people to access quality local products and services. It is vitally important now to support local business as they re-open. Many of these businesses stayed open during the pandemic to support their local communities and now they need our support to ensure that they remain a strong and vibrant part of our local communities.”
Emer O’Gorman, Fingal County Council’s Director of Economic, Enterprise & Tourism Development stated: “The Council is working with local business to help them to adapt to a new environment. Many businesses have re-orientated quickly to adapt to new conditions and to expand their offerings to sustain their businesses. Shoplocal.irish offers local business the opportunity to promote new services online and serves a collective marketing need for these businesses. Fingal County Council is excited to be involved in this social enterprise which helps sustain local business and provides crucial information to local communities about the accessibility of goods and services in their local areas.”
With the platform under continuous development to improve and expand the website in response to the needs of registered businesses, Shoplocal.irish is going from strength to strength and has ambitious plans to roll out across Dublin and nationwide.
Why not check out the website Shoplocal.irish today to see if it can help your business?