A company helping other firms explore the possibilities of online trading has hit the ground running.

Digital Velocity, based at Huddersfield’s Media Centre, was launched at the beginning of 2015 but already employs six senior staff and is expecting to recruit more over the summer.

The firm, which also has sites in Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and London, is fielding enquiries from national retailers and household names and is working in conjunction with other local companies as well as talking to Huddersfield University.

The company is led by managing director Richard Jones and commercial director Tom Kemp and has personnel with experience in dealing with independent businesses, SMEs and blue chip clients.

It specialises in e-commerce and digital marketing – including designing and building transactional websites, email marketing, mobile apps, search engine optimisation and social media.

Mr Kemp said e-commerce and online retailing were growing in importance – but that it was a changing industry people were struggling to keep up with.

UK online retail sales were forecast to reach £52.25bn this year – with double-digit growth equating to more than 15% of all retail sales in the UK, according to the British Retail Consortium.

The average UK consumer was expected to spend £1,174 online this year – up 16.2% on 2014 which totalled £44.97bn.

But while 33% of orders now come from a mobile device rather than a computer, one in five businesses don’t have a transactional mobile site and 44% do not have a tablet optimised site.

Mr Kemp said all companies should be considering their online operations – whether they were trading business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B).

In fact, B2B was forecast to overtake B2C in the next five years.

He said: “This is not just a question of selling products, it’s a question of maximising efficiencies, minimising costs, innovating ahead of your competition.

Mr Kemp said many businesses had a website “which isn’t going anywhere”. But he said: “Digital is a space where most companies can do more and don’t really use it to leverage themselves beyond the competition.”

Said Mr Kemp: “It’s our intention to try to help educate and spread the word and help companies ensure they can support their customer through technology and marketing.”