Member Article

Northumberland clothing retailer highlighted for digital engagement

A women’s outdoor clothing and equipment shop in Northumberland, which says it “just wouldn’t exist without the Internet, is to be featured by a nationwide campaign raising awareness of the benefits of greater digital engagement among the UK’s 5.4 million small businesses.

Gear for Girls, which is owned by Alison Wright, is one of a series of small businesses being showcased by “Do It Digital”, an independent, not-for-profit campaign as part of its “100 Days of Digital”.

“Around 90% of our sales are now online and as a local employer, I’m sure at least one of my staff would have moved away without a job here,” explains Alison. “Without being able to access to a wider market for selling online we just wouldn’t exist.”

But for Gear for Girls, digital engagement is about more than just sales and marketing.

“We do HMRC and tax returns online and the next stage is to put our accounts online,” Allison continues. “Just about everything we do on the sales side of the business is fully online; our website is managed in the ‘cloud’, as is the stock handling system. It’s great from a security point of view that everything is backed up, up-to-date and accessible. There are no headaches of losing data or something going wrong as it’s all there and can be shared and accessed from home or wherever I am.”

The Do It Digital campaign aims to help the digitally un-engaged take their first steps online whilst promoting opportunities for those already online to engage further and expand their digital horizons. The focus of the first “100 Days of Digital” will be to highlight opportunities both in the “real world” and online for small business owners to access help, advice, inspiration and support.

When asked what her one piece of advice be to a small business about digital would be, Alison is clear that it is to give it a go. “Don’ t be afraid of it; educate yourself. With sites like Codecademy you can even learn how to code. It’ s great to be able to make hands-on changes to your website and not rely on someone else to do that for you. There are plenty of online courses available to learn these skills. You really can change something overnight with a small business.”

According to a report commissioned last year by domain hosts GoDaddy, 60 per cent of businesses with five employees or less are not digitally engaged.

The Do It Digital initiative will positively promote the benefits of digital engagement for small businesses, from having a simple web presence to taking the first steps towards selling online. The campaign says that digital engagement is crucial for all aspects of business, from marketing and recruitment to banking and accounting, and is only likely to become more so. Digital engagement will become increasingly central to the development of competitive, profitable and growing businesses.

For more information contact media@doitdigital.co.uk and see online at www.doitdigital.co.uk , on Twitter @doitdigitaluk , and at www.facebook.com/doitdigitaluk Ends.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Howard Robinson .