1. What is soslocalbusiness.com?

This website is a not-for-profit initiative started by Designhill.com, a leading online creative marketplace, to financially support businesses that are facing the calamitous consequences of Covid-19. Through this platform businesses can request their regular or loyal customers or even local communities to help them by purchasing vouchers or gift cards in advance and redeem them in the future against products or services offered by such businesses.

By purchasing the vouchers now, you as a customer are helping the merchants/businesses generate working capital such businesses may need to pay rents or salaries to survive these tough times.

We, at Designhill, are merely acting as an agent/facilitator for these businesses and will not be charging any fee or commissions on any transactions. We are only helping you purchase vouchers or gift cards of your favorite café, restaurant or brand thus helping them by paying forward.

2. What if the business I choose to buy a voucher from goes bankrupt before the redemption?

That’s a valid concern. Since no one can predict what’s going to happen in the future, there is surely a risk in buying a voucher. We are just agents for the businesses and it’s at their discretion to work with you or resolve the issue in such a scenario.

3. When will I get the voucher?

Once you have paid for the voucher, you will receive a confirmation email with a unique number on it. That will be your voucher code. Take a print out of it or save it on your phone and show it to the merchant at the time of redemption.

4. Will I get a physical voucher?

No, all the vouchers sold on this website are only e-vouchers. As an organization we are doing our bit to save the environment by going green and paperless. Hence, we will not be mailing you physical or tangible vouchers. And we encourage you to be a part of the same.

5. What if I want to send a voucher to a family member/friend? How can I do that?

When you purchase a voucher from this website, you will receive a confirmation email consisting of a unique voucher code. You can forward this code or share it with your family or friend.

6. What is the validity of my voucher?

The validity of the voucher is 1 year from the date of purchase, or 6 months after the businesses resume operations.

7. What percentage of money goes to the businesses when someone purchases a voucher?

As we mentioned, it is a pro bono initiative and we are not making any money out of this. We are collecting payments on behalf of the merchants/businesses and will be remitting the entire amount  to them.

8. Are you a charitable organization? 

No, we aren’t a charity. We are a registered company operating as an online marketplace that connects businesses with creative professionals worldwide. We are not earning any profits. We have started this website to help as many businesses as we can, majority of whom have been our customers in the past. We are simply collecting the payments on their behalf and remitting to them. In fact, running this website is costing us some money along with efforts and time.

9. I have a suggestion for a business that isn’t listed on the website. How do I do that?

Great. In that case you can either let us know about them by visiting our ‘Suggest a Business’ section or let them know about us. We will try to get in touch with them and if they would be interested, we will add them to our list.