How Bristol’s independent traders are now running two shops at once

Walk along Gloucester Road on a Saturday, or through the stalls at St Nicholas Market, and you will often find traders running two shops at once – their bricks and mortar operation and the one on their phone. For years, the missing piece was not creativity but technology. A ceramic maker at Tobacco Factory Market or an artist exhibiting in Stokes Croft could take beautiful photographs of their work and yet still have no practical way to sell to customers who could not make it into the city. This has changed dramatically thanks to the introduction of technology. Today’s website builders are designed to feel more like a conversation than a coding lesson. Instead of choosing from endless templates, traders can simply describe what they sell and have a working website assembled in minutes, complete with hosting, a domain and a professional email address. For example, One.com’s website builder tool creates a site from a chat prompt rather than a template gallery while bundling hosting and a free domain into the same package. This removes much of the technical friction that once put people off getting started.

Why a consistent online identity is crucial
A good-looking website is only part of the picture. Few first-time traders think of a domain as a trust indicator but a consistent, properly owned domain does more to build trust than polished copy or professional photography. Customers are naturally more confident buying from a business with a clear, consistent online identity than one relying solely on marketplace profiles or social media links. For traders whose reputation has been built through local recommendations, that same consistency matters online. It’s part of a bigger pattern. Forbes Advisor’s most recent poll found that 70% of UK business owners believed they could build their own website with more than a third describing the process as easy. That is a significant change from only a few years ago when launching a website usually meant paying a designer or developer. Others still prefer WordPress hosting for greater control as their business grows but, whichever route they choose, the biggest technical barriers have mostly disappeared.

Selling online without losing personality
Nearly three in every 10 pounds spent in UK retail is now spent online, with the Office for National Statistics reporting that market traders are increasingly part of that trend. Bristol’s independent retail scene has spent years proving that success comes from doing one thing well rather than trying to compete with everyone. The same principle applies online. Many of Bristol’s new independent shops, from florists to community-run creative spaces, have discovered that moving online involves plenty of trial and error. Product photography often takes longer than expected. Returns policies have to be finalised before the first order arrives, not after. A website that feels intuitive on a phone may still need work to function smoothly on a laptop. In practice, these details matter more than the technology itself. Traders already know their regular customers and understand how they shop. That makes it easier to decide whether to offer local delivery, click and collect from a market stall or collection from a nearby café before expanding further. Questions that rarely arise during cash sales, such as refund policies or how to handle one-off handmade items that sell out, need clear answers before customers start placing orders.

A shopfront that stays open 24/7
The businesses that benefit most tend to treat their website as an extension of the personality customers already recognise rather than creating a polished but anonymous version of themselves. The independent shops featured in Bristol24/7’s regular Shop of the Week series succeed for much the same reason; whether customers discover them on a high street or through a search engine, they know what makes them different and communicate it clearly.  A website with genuine character usually outperforms one that feels generic. An honest “About” page written in the owner’s own voice often does more to connect with customers than carefully crafted marketing language. Whether a trader chooses an AI-powered builder or WordPress becomes far less important than keeping the site current with new products, updated opening times and seasonal events. The website simply becomes another part of running the business, much like setting up the stall each morning. The traders making the biggest strides are not necessarily the largest businesses or the most confident with technology. They are usually the ones who approach a website much as they would a new market pitch by getting it online, seeing what works and improving it over time. For a city that has long championed independent businesses, that feels like a natural next step. The shopfront may now exist on a screen as well as a street but the principles behind it remain the same.

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