THE TEAM who brought Barrow Eats to the town is preparing to launch a new app - Barrow Shops.

Barrow Shops hopes to provide a new way for shops in the town to advertise to the community, and offer a convenient way to complete deliveries.

Scott Beckman, co-founder of Barrow Eats, the company behind Barrow Shops, said: "We are going to be launching Barrow Shops, it's Barrow Eats but for shops.

"It is for all shops who don't serve hot food - so clothing shops, food shops, florists, convenience stores, pretty much anything that you can think of.

"There has been a big shift in needing to support local, trying to get everyone to stop using online stores like Amazon to try and keep some of the stores in the town making money again, like we did with Barrow Eats.

"We will have the exact same incentives, continuing to contribute to the town with sponsoring charity events, sponsoring local teams and donating to the foodbank."

Mr Beckman said the move comes as a result of growing demands from businesses in the area who wanted to utilise the Barrow Eats app, but did not have any food on offer.

He said: "We have had quite a lot of people ask us if they can put their shop on Barrow Eats, we want to help everybody out but we need to be careful that Barrow Eats remains what it it, and what it is for, for the takeaways on there.

"A lot of it is due to demand. We have got the technology in place, now is the time where we are going to press on with it.

"Local stores have been shut and less people have been out and about on the streets.

"If we can offer an advertising avenue for local stores, because the only other things like this out there at the moment are those like Amazon and Etsy, which have really high fees, and youre not promoting to local people so have to post nationally.

"Hopefully this will help to keep 'shop local' going.

Explaining how the app will work, and how it will be different to the Barrow Eats app, he said: "There will be imagery on the app, and then all of the items will be listed on there, and a delivery slot option as opposed to specific times.

"Say if it's a market stall, they may deliver between 5pm-7pm on the way back from work, so we want it to be as flexible as possible."

The team are hoping to launch the new app in the next month, and are eager to welcome businesses on board. If your business is interested in joining, you can message the Barrow Shops Facebook page or email: contact@barrowshops.co.uk