Gosling’s has been around since 1806, but it has never had an online shop — until this week.

The Bermudian company, famous for its Black Seal Rum, has entered a new era with its first online shop, which is filled with beers, wines and spirits that can be ordered for pick-up or delivery across the island.

Shawn Talbot, content creation specialist at Gosling’s, said: “We wanted to have another outlet for customers to shop from — they have wanted one for a while. We have been working on it for about six months now, while Covid was on.”

He said the idea of an online shop was already being progressed before the Covid-19 pandemic, but part of its impetus was in reaction to the changing circumstances, and to give people an option where they did not have to go to the Gosling’s store, but could have orders delivered.

Mr Talbot said: “You can either choose to have your order delivered, or you can pick it up at our store. There is free delivery if you have to spend over $100.

“The website sells just about anything you could normally buy from the Gosling’s store. I would say 80 per cent of what we have would be online.

The web-based shop is only for island customers, there are no international deliveries yet.

Since the shop went live at the start of the week the reaction has been great, Mr Talbot said.

He added: “We expect it to build buzz as people learn more about it, and we are pushing it on social media and stuff. Once word of mouth gets around and people become more accustomed to us having a website, I think our sales will increase exponentially.”

Mr Talbot was assisted on the website project by Victoria Esposito, business development manager at Gosling’s.

• The online shop is at www.Goslingslimited.com