A new shopping website has been set up to allow people to support Scottish island businesses who are struggling while non-essential travel restrictions are in place.
Isle20 was set up by Tiree Tea founder Rhoda Meek, to help give island based firms a platform by driving traffic to them, and to help them to sell more online.
Supported by the Scottish Islands Federation, listings for businesses on the site are free and cover places ranging from bigger islands like Arran and Islay to much smaller islands like Muck, Canna and Gigha.
Shoppers can search for everything from jewelry and beachwear to smoked salmon and tablet, with hundreds of businesses and services from the island communities across Scotland all listed.
Rhoda explained that when the pandemic reared its ugly head, she had just set up a new business on Tiree, she said: "It was particularly acute for me at that time as I sat with a few thousand pounds worth of tea in my spare room. I had just taken my first proper steps into creating a wee tea label – Tiree Tea – with the intention of selling tea over the summer months.
"It was further compounded by the fact that just before the pandemic reared its head, I had decided to walk away from my main contract (as a Product Manager in software development) and take a few months break – selling tea and picking up work here and there."
She added that she was inspired by the early days of the internet, when, before Google was a thing, directories were very popular, to create a new website in the hopes of generating business for her and others like her.
"At first it was a single page, then I added the option to view listings by island, then by category – it’s been a learning curve. Once the listings started increasing, I turned my attention to driving traffic to them."
Her skills from having worked in software development came in handy and she explained that she had some big breaks when other blogs began to share her story which led to even featuring on TV with BBC Alba.
Now the site continues to grow and has hundreds of businesses with thousands of visitors each month.
