There are only three weeks now until Maldon district joins a business venture aimed at breathing new life and viability into local High Streets and independent businesses.

On 20 April, Click It Local will be launched across the district, from Maldon to Burnham-on-Crouch and in between. It will mean shoppers can purchase goods of all kinds online from independent shops in any town that has joined up to the Click It Local network and, if ordered before 1pm, receive them to their doorstep the very same day.

Ordering after 1pm will still see next day delivery.

The range of goods shoppers can buy using the service is almost endless – everything from bakery goods and meat and any other foodstuffs through to fashion, gifts, home furnishings, housewares, pet supplies and toiletries.

Already operating in a number of towns across the UK, much of the Essex county area is now joining the network. Uttlesford and Brentwood are already on board and now not only Maldon, but Braintree, Colchester, Chelmsford, Rochford and Tendring are set to join, too.

Founder and CEO of Click IT Local, Cambridge-based entrepreneur Steve Koch, spoke to Nub News this week and explained how he believes the pandemic has sped up the move by many to online shopping – and that significant numbers of those shoppers won't go back to how they shopped before. However, he hopes to help local businesses make the most of the situation and turn the tide to their advantage.

"What we want to do is bring a whole new customer base to those traders," Steve said, "we join it up and allow those independent businesses to reach people from outside the area that they haven't been able to before.

"Basically, shoppers want two main things: massive choice in one place and a convenience in delivery. Click It Local offers both of those."

The hope is that this new business stream will bring new income to businesses, allowing them to thrive and give new life to High Streets as they also continue to provide the real-life shopping experience and so help to maintain town centres as the central feature and focus in communities that they so often are.

Central to Steve's business model are hubs – in Essex these are in Colchester and Chelmsford – staffed reliably by a fifty-fifty mix of permanent staff and contractors.

Steve said: "We don't want to engage in the gig economy. As the business grows, more jobs will be created locally."

In Maldon district, independent businesses will have their first subscription to the Click It Local service paid for by Maldon District Council for the first six months and then can opt to continue with it on a self-funded basis.

For more information on Click It Local, you can take a look at the website by using the link here.