Lancaster University graduate appears on The One Show and calls out to Lancaster businesses

Shopkeeper Carla Waite helping promote the business.Shopkeeper Carla Waite helping promote the business.
Shopkeeper Carla Waite helping promote the business.
Lancaster University alumni and entrepreneur Jackie Mulligan will be on The One Show tonight, Tuesday, thanks to her pioneering new business.

Jackie’s business www.ShopAppy.com provides a new way to shop local for people too busy to shop local more often.

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It was inspired from her own frustration of having insufficient time to support local businesses that were often closed when she returned home from work.

ShopAppy.com launched in November 2016 in the two flagship towns of Saltaire and Otley in Yorkshire and is now moving up into new shopping areas with discussions taking place with businesses across the country.

Jackie is keen to have the site available to Lancaster residents soon and is keen to speak to the Lancaster BID board and local businesses.

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Jackie said: “Lancaster is a perfect city for ShopAppy because of the number of local independent shops and services.

“I appreciated them during my University days and return visits, but think this new site will level up the playing field.

“The website was developed after I met with shops and customers about how we could level the playing field for independent businesses who were closing due to changing lifestyles and the increased competition from sites like Amazon and the big supermarket chains.

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“ShopAppy.com was a solution to giving customers more choice, allowing local shops to be open 24 hours a day and most importantly giving customers a choice to shop closer to home.

“Put simply I wanted to provide convenience with a local conscience and to support our local towns who were losing their independent character.”

In the first eight weeks 48 businesses joined ShopAppy.com and more than 3,000 visitors have browsed the shops online, with customers buying online with click and collect or popping into their local shops to see the products in person.

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Otley BID manager Peter Mudge has been delighted with the scheme so far.

He said: “I have been hoping for years that an attractive application can be found to make it easy to buy from local shops when you are not in the area.

“ShopAppy.com offers this and helped Otley enjoy one of its best ever Christmas in terms of shopper numbers.”

The One Show film crew sent Steve Brown to report on the new venture in Otley and Saltaire with interviews with local shops and business leaders.