Espres: Helping local shops to sell more online

Aim

COVID-19 has forced people to shop online. It's our aim to encourage communities to shop locally online, supporting independents.

The Project

The coronavirus has accelerated the shift to online retail, with more people than ever before choosing to order via their computer instead of visiting a physical store.

For supermarkets with an existing online presence this is an opportunity, for many local independent food retailers though this is a portion of their customers that will be lost.

Most high street independents such as greengrocers, bakeries or butchers don't understand the online world. For small businesses that do move online they discover a new world of competition, they're no longer competing against their own high street. Selling online isn't easy but this is where our project aims to help.

Our platform "Espres" connects local communities with local shops online. We handle the marketing, we handle the logistics, the independent retailer can then focus on the operation of their businesses as they always have. 

The lockdown may have been lifted but social distancing is a reality until a vaccine is sourced, meaning that there is still a clear health benefit associated with shopping online. Through this project we hope to ensure the survival of more independent food retail stores, offering them an online presence that will rival that of national brands.

Team

Myself (Sam) & Ali are childhood friends and have worked on a variety of projects together over the years. Up until recently I was the owner of a respected photo booth company "Booth Nineteen", however the coronavirus devastated the events industry and a fresh start was needed. Ali handles the operations & technology side of the project, a capable programmer and a keen swimmer, he can usually be found early in the morning in the water at fisherman’s walk.

Investment

This investment of £550 will be used to purchase the core payment technology that will form the hub of our business.

As co-founders, myself (Sam) and Alistair have many expenses to balance already, your contribution to our modest target will allow us to invest our personal funds into other areas of the business.

Roadmap

Our marketing efforts are focused on the suburb of Southbourne. As we begin to scale we will move into Bournemouth and eventually Dorset.

We're currently concentrating our efforts on the bakery niche, with plans to expand into butchers, greengrocers, farm shops and other high street food retailing industries.

This project has the potential to become a national brand, becoming a deliveroo style delivery service that supports local retailers selling local produce.

We've already received our first client, breaking the initial glass ceiling!

This project closed unsuccessfully on 23rd June 2020