Getting your high street online

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Getting your high street online.

StoreKit has produced free software for independent restaurants, shops, and other businesses, to transform themselves into online cash stores during the pandemic.

Similar software charges around 10% per order, and delivery platforms such as Deliveroo charge as much as 30% per order, so this is our way of giving back to the community of independent store owners which have made StoreKit successful in its hardware sales and payments contracts.

Some facts and figures:

• In 2019, there were 26K businesses registered as restaurants (source)
• This is in addition to 39K pubs in the UK, many of which operate as restaurants (source)
• There are 547K ‘retail’ businesses in the UK (source – download ‘business statistics pdf’)

That means that half a million businesses which are presently unable to operate. They need help getting online. This is their opportunity to do so for free.

Terms

An online ordering system is the name for what StoreKit has produced. It’s a front-end using which a shop or restaurant can make a library or menu, and customers can make orders. Check out one business using our OOS.

A delivery platform is the name for Deliveroo, Just Eat, and Uber Eats. They operate as a central ‘marketplace of restaurants’ and handle delivery in addition to the OOS functionality. They typically charge 20-30% and are often perceived by merchants as squeezing their margins.