AN ONLINE shopping business set up to give a boost to Saltaire’s traders is looking to expand as it gears up for national TV exposure.

ShopAppy.com was set up to give residents who live within a five-mile radius of Saltaire the chance to buy goods from their own home from a number of the village’s independent shops.

Users can go on the website at any time and order goods which they are then able to collect.

It was set up initially in Saltaire and also Otley by Jackie Mulligan, 46, a Saltaire resident who says she wants to offer an alternative to major supermarkets and online retailers.

Saltaire retailers who have signed up to the scheme include greengrocers Orange Grove, Jeanette’s Cakery, a vintage tea room in Bingley Road, and homeware shop Butterfly Rooms.

Users to the website type in their postcode to find their nearest participating independent shops.

It features 28 retailers who have signed up, split equally between Saltaire and Otley.

Online shoppers are also given the option to pick up their orders from the village’s shops themselves, or from Saltaire Wines.

Now the venture will be highlighted on The One Show, on BBC One from 7pm tonight, in a report filmed in Otley and Saltaire.

ShopAppy.com has registered 48 businesses and had more than 3,400 visitors to its website since it went live in November.

The business has already proved such a success that discussions are taking place with businesses in areas including Ilkley, Shipley, Bingley and Baildon, in a bid to expand the service.

Founder Ms Mulligan, of Victoria Park, who has lived in the village for the last ten years, said she was delighted to have got the attention of national TV.

“The shopkeepers in Saltaire, Shipley and Otley have been so supportive and business is improving every week after a great Christmas,” she said. “Last week, over two nights, we had 448 visitors on the site – so this is clearly fulfilling a need.

“Now ShopAppy is ready to go to any town in the hope of supporting more local shops all over the country – I could not be happier to be on such a popular national TV show.”

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