Swindon’s virtual Christmas market has been so successful the two pals who set it up are continuing it into the New Year.

The two mums, Kerry Molson and Helen Motture, created a virtual festive fair to help support local businesses and enable customers to continue to shop locally for Christmas presents despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now the Facebook group boasts 1200 members and 70 different businesses selling a range of items.

Kerry, a mum of one from The Prinnels, said: “It went really well over Christmas. We got more and more sellers involved. And customers seem to like it as they get to see lots of local independent businesses all in one place. So it’s nice and easy for them.

“I got quite a lot of feedback from the sellers too saying thank you because they might not have been able to reach those people otherwise.”

The pair, who sell Usborne Books, came up with the idea when looking for a way for them to continue to offer them in the run up to Christmas. However after the festive success they decided to keep it going, reaming the group to the Virtual Independent Market for Swindon.

Kerry added: “As much as people like buying gifts, people like buying local products all year round for everyday things if they can. We even have Purton farm on there too.”

Items being offered for sale include jewellery, books, crafts, hats and scarves as well as food items and produce.

Any independent business selling goods based in or around Swindon is welcome to advertise their products in the market, which has been going since September.

“We were really impressed with how quickly it grew,” added Kerry.

We never really thought past Christmas when we set it up. We were just to to find ways of getting our businesses out there, as well as other people’s and we just thought we would see how things go.”

Kerry added that there is a a big appetite among consumers in Swindon for local produce and gifts

“With the independent businesses you really are getting something unique,” she said.

“Because of the pandemic and the third lockdown it is very hard at the moment for small businesses at that’s when the virtual market comes into it’s own.

“People can’t get to the shops. They can’t travel and so they are heavily reliant to shopping online, but not everyone wants to got to the likes of Amazon, they want to support their local businesses. So this is a great way of doing so.”

Kerry added: “We’ll keep the market going for as long as people want it.”