Bira’s e-marketplace shows supporting local brings big rewards

The UK based tech team behind the newly launched independent marketplace neartoo.co.uk, revealed how supporting small businesses delivered the biggest reward.

‘Locally UK had been operating hyper-local online marketplaces since September 2019, offering independent businesses a way to sell to their community online, regardless of their technical ability. The pandemic accelerated the growth of their platform, and led them to connect with The British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) after featuring alongside one another in a mainstream media outlet.

Developed by co-founder Darren Townsend and Business Development Director Tom Smith, they believed a similar version of the platform could be provided Nationwide, to offer support for more independent businesses across the country. 

Darren said: “We developed the initial platform pre-pandemic, after recognising that many SMEs were struggling to keep up with the constant growth of online sales.”

Darren had spent 20 years running a small business in the High Street retail sector, and was aware of other local businesses facing a similar challenge. 

“We wanted to create a platform that put businesses on a level playing field, and made e-commerce accessible regardless of your technical ability. Thankfully for us we had been operating a pilot version of the platform when the pandemic hit, meaning we were well positioned to support the influx of independent retailers looking for support.”  

 “The platform was recognised by The Guardian who interviewed me for a story, which coincidentally featured a quote from Andrew Goodacre (Bira’s CEO). He mentioned that they were in the process of developing a platform to support their 3,000+ members, and we were confident our solution would be a good fit. Bira had initial discussions with some huge tech companies, and after seeing our initial proposal we were super excited when they came back to us within a matter of hours. It is testament to Bira and their ethos that they chose us, a small UK based independent tech team, to work with to deliver Neartoo.” 

Following talks with Bira’s CEO Andrew Goodacre, and Neartoo’s Ecommerce Manager Jayne Weldon, work started in making the platform more extensive, robust and with a much wider capability.

“Developing tools such as the stock synchronisation element were important to us. From our experience we knew that small businesses simply would not have the resources to manage more than one inventory system. Enabling businesses to synchronise with their existing platform, such as Shopify or Woocommerce, added value to their previous investments and allowed them the time to do what they do best – build relationships with their local customers,” said Darren.

Development took around six months to get to a stage where sellers could begin to interact with the site, loading profiles and products before being launched to the public in March 2022.

Jayne Weldon said, “We were just thrilled to get Locally UK onboard as they had done so much of the development that we had been searching for to make Neartoo a reality, so it was the perfect match. 

“What was also really important to us was that they understood Bira and our members, and themselves were an independent tech team who wanted to help others that may not have the skills, or reach, to resource their own online presence. And for those who already did, it is already proving to be a huge boost to their original offering, which is a big tick for us to know how much it is helping them,” she said.

“Hundreds of independent stores around the country have already signed up to feature on Neartoo.co.uk and more are in development thanks to the hard work of the team, and so it’s testament to their skills that we have got so far in such a short space of time. I think we all appreciate our local shops and traders so much more now after what has been a very hard two years, so let’s hope this new blend of hybrid trading is the key to helping our economy back on its feet,” added Jayne.