One town’s bid to take the whole town online

An East Lancashire town is tackling lockdown with an ambitious project to take the whole High Street online.

Colne, in the foothills of Pendle Hill, has offered all of it’s retailers their own online store, funded by the town’s Business Improvement District, through their cometocolne.com online hub.

This means that people will be able to support their local High Street, right through the run up to Christmas.

The town has also teamed up with a local delivery partner, meaning that they’re able to delivery anything in their Borough, next day, using a local network. This local delivery service, as well as a click & collect hub, will be provided at no cost to the consumer or retailer, thanks to funding from Colne BID and Pendle Borough Council.

It has given many High Street businesses, including hairdressers, gyms and restaurants the opportunity to pivot their businesses to create a retail element.

Jane Turner, one of the BID Directors, and owner of Tubbs of Colne on the High Street said “This is about future-proofing the high street, and it’s a great opportunity for some retailers to really develop their businesses”.

“Christmas is a really important time for retailers, and it’s been great to see the numbers of people wanting to sign up. We’ve got businesses pivoting to takeaways, and some really innovative ways of making sure they survive”.

"We're moving at incredible speed, with websites launching already and the delivery service beginning tomorrow morning". See www.cometocolne.com for the whole hub. 

 

We are operating as a click and collect hub, where you can drop your parcels and customers can collect from here. There is no charge to you for this service.

The Click and Collect Hub operates between 8.30am and 5pm, and parcels can be dropped at any time within that range.