OUR STORY
Built locally. Growing into something much bigger.
Online Shopping began with a simple idea: give independent businesses another way to reach customers — without trying to replace the high street, their own website or the social media communities they have already built.
Before Online Shopping, there was South Tyneside Online — a local community and shopping platform created to support businesses throughout South Tyneside and help local people discover them.
As we worked with more businesses, something started to change. Businesses from outside South Tyneside began asking if they could get involved too. It made us realise that the idea did not need to stop at the borough boundary.
At around the same time, we watched a highly publicised situation unfold through social media where customers said they had paid for products that never arrived. It raised a very simple question for us:
Most independent businesses and social-media sellers are genuine, hardworking people. Social media is also an incredible way for small businesses to build an audience. But it was never designed to be the complete shopping infrastructure behind a business.
We felt there was room for another option: a dedicated marketplace where businesses have a proper store, customers can browse and order through a structured platform, and independent sellers can reach people locally or much further afield.
That idea became Online Shopping.
OUR ROOTS
South Tyneside is still part of the story
Creating Online Shopping did not mean leaving South Tyneside Online behind. It still exists, and we continue working with local businesses and the community.
Online Shopping is the next part of that journey. We are building our strongest local network across the North East while creating a marketplace that can work much further afield. Businesses choose where they want to sell, and where postage is available their customers can be anywhere in the UK.
THE PEOPLE BEHIND IT
Built by Daryl & Dee
Online Shopping is independently built and run by us, and we both bring experience of running businesses ourselves.
Dee brings the management and customer-service side. Her experience helps shape how we work with businesses and customers, how problems are handled and how the platform feels for the people actually using it.
Daryl brings the technical and logistical side. Since 2008, he has worked with several multinational companies in roles spanning technology, logistics and operations. That experience now feeds directly into the way Online Shopping is being developed.
Those different backgrounds are important. We are not building the platform solely from a technical point of view or solely from a sales point of view. We are combining management, customer service, technology, logistics and our own experience of running businesses.
WHAT WE'VE PUT INTO IT
More than a website
We've put a huge amount into Online Shopping — our experience, our own investment and a lot of hours.
There have been long days, late nights, testing, rebuilding, changing direction and starting parts again when we believed they could work better. What customers see on the screen is only the front of a much larger platform we continue to develop.
Building a marketplace of this scale commercially could easily involve tens of thousands of pounds once development, marketplace technology, design, integrations, search infrastructure and ongoing maintenance are taken into account.
Rather than asking each independent business to build all of that for itself, our aim is to build the infrastructure once and make it accessible through Online Shopping.
We have put our time, experience and investment into the platform because we believe independent businesses deserve another opportunity to compete online.
SHOP. ORDER. BOOK.
Built for more than products
Online Shopping can work for different types of independent businesses. Shops and sellers can offer collection, local delivery or postage; restaurants and takeaways with their own drivers can take online orders; and appointment-based businesses such as hairdressers, barbers, nail technicians and beauty businesses can use booking systems for their services.
For businesses that do not need online selling, ordering or bookings, we can also help through City Local — our platform for helping customers find, discover and contact local businesses and services.
City Local — Find. Discover. Contact.
NEXT: HOW IT WORKS
So, how does Online Shopping actually work?
There's much more happening behind the marketplace than simply listing businesses. See how Online Shopping connects customers and sellers, and how businesses can choose where and how they want to sell.