Music festival team create online ‘tool’ to help Falkirk area businesses

The team behind Vibration Festival — one of many such events which has succumbed to the global pandemic — decided to set up a Tide Over e-commerce platform as a way of giving back to the community as a goodwill gesture for the support it gave last year’s inaugural event in Falkirk’s Callendar Park.

With many independent retailers like cafes and retail shops forced to close their doors indefinitely under government orders, Vibration organisers Andy and David Ure and Fiona Rennie were keen to do something that would both fill their own time and prove beneficial to others.

They then opted to pool their digital marketing and advertising skills together to create a website that allows customers to buy vouchers for their favourite local firms signed up to the platform which can then be used at a later date.

In turn, businesses receive a source of income, with all of the money going directly to the recipient.

Explaining the thinking behind Tide Over, Andy, of Falkirk, said: “It’s an easy-to-use e-commerce platform to allow customers to support businesses now for goods later.

“A lot of small businesses don’t have online shops or somewhere they can sell vouchers from.

“One hundred per cent goes to the business and 75 per cent is paid out within a week.

“We did some market research and businesses wanted us to hold the 25 per cent back because if they are given it all now they could come back into business dealing with customers for free. A cafe in Glasgow signed up and has sold £1000 in vouchers and a record shop in Stirling has done the same.

“We don’t benefit from it, we just want the word to be put out to businesses that need it.

“It’s a place for cafes, small shops, independent businesses, tradespeople, people who work from home or who run a business off a Facebook page only. If you want to support businesses using the scheme, go online and pledge money to get them through the hard times.”

Visit tideover.co for more information.

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