Click It Local: Virtual high street for local businesses ceases
- Published
Click It Local operated in places including Cambridge
An online shopping scheme to support local businesses has ceased.
Click It Local was launched to create a virtual high street for local retailers, providing online ordering and delivery for independent stores.
Its aim was to help retailers bounce back from the Covid pandemic, and operated in counties including Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex.
The scheme said it had "exhausted all possible options" to secure the funding it needed to continue.
It allowed people to buy from local independent or high street shops through one payment and get it delivered the same or next day.
The Cambridge Cheese Company was among those that had signed up to the scheme
The East Suffolk scheme launched in December and by the end of February, there were 35 live stores and a further 23 signed up waiting to go live.
Elsewhere, Essex businesses in places including Maldon, Braintree and Chelmsford had signed up to the scheme, as had companies in Cambridge and Huntingdon.
But activity ceased earlier this month, with orders being cancelled and shoppers refunded unfulfilled orders, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.
A statement on Click It Local's website, external said: "Click It Local's mission has been to support independent retailers by innovating the high street and the way we all shop local.
"To deliver on this mission, in what has been an increasingly challenging period, we have been working constantly over the last six months to secure the support and capital we need to continue in this effort.
"It has become apparent that we have exhausted all possible options. It is with very heavy hearts that we must sadly let you know that we will no longer be able to serve our cherished stores and customers."
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East Suffolk Council had committed £60,000 from its share of the Government's Welcome Back Fund on a six-month pilot with Click It Local last October.
Its Conservative deputy leader Craig Rivett said it was understood outstanding customer orders had been fully refunded.
"Our chief concern is minimising any impact on affected businesses," he added.
Click It Local also operated in Brighton, London and Lewes, East Sussex.
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