Become a Member Shop

Love Our Shops UK was created to share the best British independent online shops.  So inspiring shoppers to shop independent every day.

Are you one of these independent online shop?   Would you like to be part of a thriving community of independent online shops?

Love Our Shops UK is a shopping directory, a blog and a place to share your shop and your products.

Joining Love Our Shops UK shopping directory

Our doors are now open to recruit our founder group of UK independent online shops.

Would you like to be one of these special shops?

We are currently offering directory membership at just £5 per month.  That is less than 17 pence per day!!!

This price is locked in for you and you can cancel at any time.  As long as you remain a member you will only ever pay £5* a month, even when the price increases.  Joining fee is also greatly reduced at just a one off fee of £10.  

The price will increase as Love Our Shops UK grows.  It will always be great value for money, but not this amazing deal.

This offer is for the first 30 shops only.  After that the price will be £9.50 and a £20 joining fee for the next group of shops.

 

» Apply Here

Love Our Shops UK is a shopping directory (and not a marketplace), with a strong focus on community and inspiration.

All shopping is done directly with each individual shop, so there is no sales commission.

The customers are your customers.

As a thriving community of shops, we can help and support each other.  Together we are a bigger voice, we have a bigger presence.

Benefits of being a member.

Below is a summary of all the benefits.  I explain them in more detail here  Benefits of Being a Member.  

Every benefit adds up to helping you gain more traffic to your shop and getting more customers:

• Helps shoppers (and other people such as journalists) find and browse your shop
• Brings together one big voice for independent online shops
• Builds your Know Like Trust (KLT)
• The shoppers are your customers (it is a directory not a marketplace)
• No commission – your sales are all yours
• Helps with your SEO
• Part of a community of independent shops all helping and supporting each other
• You are alongside other really good quality shops
• Collaboration is so much easier
• Gain followers and customers
• A place to share all that you do so I can share it to the Love Our Shops UK followers
• When others talk about you, people listen – I talk about you a lot

Bonus benefit… Your directory membership fee will not increase.  The price will be going up as Love Our Shops UK grows but your rate won’t.

I have so many ideas for the future that you will benefit from, but you will remain at your low rate.

What you get as a member of Love Our Shops UK Shopping Directory

• Your own shop page which has
  • space for 12 products, all of which directly link to the products on your website
  • an area to share your about us
  • space to give more behind the scenes with the shop owner.
  • direct link to your website from both the products and your page.
  • See the Shop Directory to see how a shop is featured.
• Featured on other areas of the Love Our Shops UK website
  • products page which is searchable and categorised.
  • featured products section on home page
  • on the blog
  • adding special offers, sales and competitions to the offers page – we then share them.
• Being part of the Love Our Shops UK marketing – I love to share your shop and products
  • Featured in blog posts – Favourite Finds, My Shop and Me etc.
  • emails
  • social media
  • PR online and in print

• Access to a private group perfect for supporting each other.  All members can see what they can be involved in, ask questions, get support and see what others are up to for inspiration and ideas.

• SEO
  • you get a direct link from your shop page to your website.
  • Every shop is given a little logo “Proud member of Love Our Shops UK” to put on their shop to link to their Love Our Shops UK shop page .  This builds all shop’s SEO ranking by increasing link quality.  Brilliant for everyone!
• Shop guidance.  There is so much you need to know when running an online shop, therefore, we like to share with you helpful tips and advice to improve your store and help with running your business.

• A supportive community of online shop owners.  We tend to keep ourselves to ourselves, so wouldn’t it be great to be part of a group where you can share experiences, ask questions and divulge online retail information.

 

These are all the current benefits.

But there will be so many opportunities for all member shops when we start to become a bigger voice together.  Including PR, events and collaboration.  The ideas, possibilities, opportunities are endless.

» Apply Here

See what one of our member shops says:

“Love Our Shops UK is a vibrant showcase for British independent online shops and it has been great to be one of its founding members.  Barbara’s enthusiasm for championing ‘shop small’ is infectious and when talking to her, you can really tell her passion is genuine.  I am excited to be part of Love Our Shop UK’s next step and look forward to a growing community.”  Sarah Kelly, Saloukee Jewellery

Who can be a member?

We feature a wide range of stores from food to sports, gifts to clothing, beauty to crafting items and lots more besides.

We review each member application carefully to ensure it is right for the shoppers who visit us.

They expect quality products, good customer service, a professional user friendly site and shops with personality.  You will therefore know you will be in the directory along with other shops who are, just as brilliant as yours.

As a guide your shop must fit into the following criteria:

• It is being run by the shop owner / is independently owned.
• The products being sold are inoffensive, not considered dangerous and are of good quality.
• It is in the UK.
• The product range appeals to the shoppers who use our directory.
• The shop does not belong to a chain of high street shops, one or two bricks and mortar shops is fine.
• Professional and easy to navigate e-commerce website.  With clear images, good product descriptions and full contact details.  The store should look loved and appealing.
• Products are not being extensively featured already by other shops on our directory.
• You have a good on-line reputation and good customer service i.e. you can be trusted to provide the service a customer expects
• You are using one or two social media channels which portray your shop well
• Full terms and conditions are easily found on your shop website and include everything you expect to cover both visiting the site and buying from your shop
• You are GDPR compliant
• contact details are easily found on your website and show all options of communication available to your customers

How do we become a member and how much will it cost?

Becoming a member shop is easy.

All you have to do is fill in a quick application form which asks you a couple of simple questions about you and your shop.

We will then review it, to ensure it is a fit with our visitors and is in line with the criteria detailed above.

» Apply Here

If your shop is perfect for our directory, we will be very pleased to offer you a place and we will send you all the information to help you quickly setup your shop.

You can cancel your membership at any time, you can halt your application at any time, sending your application in is no way committing you to become a member.

So you can apply without worrying that you are signing up to something.  We will simply review the application and get back to you.

The current cost is £5 per month plus £10 joining fee for a standard directory membership.  But this is an introductory offer, limited to the first 30 shops, so be quick!!

You can cancel at any time.  This will remain at £5* a month for the lifetime of your membership, as a thank you for being a founder member.

 

Do you have any questions?

Need to know anything else?  Feel free to contact me by whatever method grabs you; email, phone, text, message on social media or feel free to send us a lovely handwritten letter (that would be wonderful especially if on pretty paper!). Our Contact Us Page. 

 

Not ready to apply but want to see what is going on?

Join the Independent Shops UK Facebook group.  This is especially for independent online shops in the UK.  It is free and a place for us all to come together and to start to support each other.  Be great to see you there.

Follow us on the social channels to see what we are up to.  Or join our Lovely List for our email updates.  Pop your email address in the box at the top right of this page…or here.

 

I wish you all the best with your online store.  You are such an important part of the UK economy and an important part of all your local economies.  People don’t realise how important you are.  So lets tell them, together.

 

Barbara

 

*we are not currently VAT registered.  This price will increase to plus VAT when we are.