Portsmouth City Council has given its support to trials of two apps developed to support local retailers and hospitality venues.
It has invited businesses to take part in pilots of Local My Stores for shopping and Contactless Menu for restaurants, both developed as part of its Go Local project.
Local My Stores will make it possible for users to shop, pay and arrange ‘click and collect’ or delivery from high street shops, and is being trialled with the support of Shaping Portsmouth, an organisation aimed at promoting business around the city.
Councillor Steve Pitt, the council’s deputy leader, said: "As part of our commitment to support the local economy, we asked Shaping Portsmouth to work closely with businesses in some of our key areas to look at how they could do things differently and together for mutual benefit.
"Part of this involves looking at digital solutions – particularly to help our more vulnerable residents to continue to use their favourite local venues and shops. We hope this app will be a way of supporting our smaller high street businesses to have an online offer and also help customers to feel more confident about supporting local shops."
Shaping Portsmouth highlighted the potential of the app to support people shielding or quarantining during the coronavirus pandemic.
Spaces and reservations
Contactless Menu includes a traffic light system for users to see which venues have spaces and to book a table, order from the menu and pay through a smartphone.
The council said up to 40 venues can participate in the pilot scheme.
Pitt said: “We hope this pilot scheme supports our businesses to operate more smoothly within the current guidelines and also helps customers to feel more confident about eating out safely."
Image by Luiz Eduardo, CC BY 2.0
