i nter v i e w
the global investor
Steven Koch
A
lready, 20 local retailers in the UK have signed up to the platform, including Barney’s Deli, stationary shop Pen to Paper, and pet supply shop The Pet Shed. For a flat rate of £3, customers can get the best these shops have to offer delivered to their door the very same day.This local delivery service will be looking to expand globally soon.
Last week, Click it Local, the delivery service hoping
to help independent usinesses compete with the likes of Amazon, launched in
Brighton, Uk 82
Their founder Steven Koch says the company’s mission is “to allow independent shops to offer their customers all the convenience of online ordering and same day delivery, without the need to comprise the environment, local community and employee welfare.” We caught up with Steven for the inside story of the UK’s most exciting new enterprise…
QQ Hello Steven! What is your business background? As a dyslexic individual, I’ve always thrived within the creative industry throughout school and my early career. You could argue my business acumen started in my early teens with countless ideas for ways to make my pocket money! But skip forward a few years, after graduating from Central Saint Martins, I started my career as an industrial designer, setting up a collective with other graduates who I still work with to this day.Then at 23 I set
up my first design agency which specialised in retail design and strategy for many global brands. Over time, the agency began to focus on creating the future of retail through the integration of technology on the high street to innovate both shop and shopper experience. This background in retail and tech gave me the skill set and knowledge to create Click It Local.
QQ What made you want to start Click it Local, and how did you go about setting it up? I personally love to buy from local independent shops and work really hard to make environmentally friendly choices about where I buy from and how I live my life. I’m also, like many others, faced with the challenge of juggling a busy home and work life. With four home-schooled children and a busy work schedule, limited time means convenience sometimes takes precedence. Current shopper behaviour and consumerism needs to change long-term and across the board to help ensure we all move to a more sustainable future. Whilst many see the value in shopping local in terms of sustainability and supporting the local economy, there is still a larger portion of the population who have no option but to rely on large online monopolies such as Amazon.
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