For local businesses

New customers, not just a new checkout

We are signing up four of Reigate’s main community schools and the thousands of families behind them. They get a weekly email of local offers, and a reason to spend with you rather than a chain: their school takes a share. Listing costs nothing, and we charge 4% only when you sell.

Where the orders come from

Being seen is the hard part. That is the bit we do.

Most platforms hand you a shopfront and wish you luck. The hard part for a small business is not taking payment, it is being seen by enough of the right people often enough to matter. That is the part we are building, and it is the reason to be on a town’s site rather than running your own.

4 schools

The network starts with the school gates

Reigate opens with four of the town’s main community schools and the families behind them. Thousands of local parents, gathered through the institution they already trust most. Clubs, churches and shoppers with no group at all widen it from there.

Weekly

An email to the whole town, every week

Every household that opts in gets a digest of what local businesses are offering that week. Your products can be in it, and being in it costs nothing extra. No advertising budget, no algorithm, no bidding against a chain.

A motive

A reason to choose you over a chain

When a parent buys from you, their child’s school gets a share. That is a reason to walk past the supermarket that no discount code replicates, and it is why these customers come back rather than buying once.

To be straight about it: Reigate has not opened yet. These are the school communities we are signing up for day one with InvestReigate, not a list already shopping. Businesses that are listed when the town opens are the ones the first wave of households sees.

Repeat business

One-offs are fine. Standing orders are the prize.

Sell tickets and Christmas boxes by all means. But the thing that changes a small business is the customer who orders every week without being asked, and that is what this platform is built to collect. A subscription turns one good month into a predictable year, and it is worth pricing for: most shops can afford to be keener on a standing order than on a walk-in, which is exactly why shoppers find better prices here. The one rule is that you never list above your own usual shop price (section 4 of the Vendor Agreement); genuine short promotions in your own shop are outside it.

If any part of what you sell can be a weekly or monthly round, offer it. We will help you set it up and it takes the same few minutes as any other product.

What that looks like

Butcher: a weekly meat box, collected Friday
Baker: two loaves a week, standing order
Greengrocer: a seasonal veg bag, fortnightly
Coffee roaster: a monthly bag of beans
Florist: fresh flowers on the first of the month
Farm shop: an egg and dairy round

Getting started

Three steps, about twenty minutes

Tell us what you sell

A few products to start with. Tickets for an event, a weekly bread round, a Christmas box, a gift card. We will suggest the ones that work for your trade, including a subscription where one fits.

Connect your bank through Stripe

You open a Stripe account in your own business name. Stripe runs the identity and bank checks, and money from your sales lands in your account, not ours.

Start taking orders

Your products appear on your town’s site. Customers order and pay, you get the order, you fulfil it exactly as you would over the counter.

What else you get

The parts that matter to a small business

You are the seller, not us

Every sale is a contract between you and your customer. You set prices, you issue receipts, you keep your own customer relationship. We are the shopfront and the checkout.

Money goes straight to you

Payments are direct charges to your own Stripe account. We never hold your takings, so there is no float sitting with us and nothing to chase if we go quiet.

Orders you can plan around

Standing orders tell you on Monday what Friday looks like. Less waste, less guesswork on stock, and a floor under the week that walk-in trade never gives you.

Nothing to build and nothing to run

No website project, no plugin to keep updated, no card terminal to rent. You list what you sell, and the town’s site does the rest.

What it costs

4% of what you sell. That is the whole list.

The fee is taken automatically out of each sale before your payout, so there is no invoice to pay and nothing to remember. Stripe charges its own card processing fee on top, the same as any card machine, and that goes to Stripe rather than to us.

There is no monthly charge, no listing fee, no setup fee and no minimum. If you sell nothing in a month, you pay nothing. We can change your town’s fee schedule on at least 30 days’ written notice, and any change only applies to sales after that.

The full fee breakdown →

What you take on

Being the seller cuts both ways, so here it is plainly. You agree to:

Keep listings accurate, including allergens and ingredients where they apply.
Fulfil orders as described, and tell us quickly if you cannot.
Handle refunds and complaints under UK consumer law, refunding from your BackMyTown dashboard. We email the customer to confirm it is on its way.
Hold the registrations, licences and insurance your trade needs.
Deal with your own tax, including VAT on your sales if you are registered.

The full terms are in the Vendor Agreement, which you accept at sign-up. Worth ten minutes of your time before you commit.

Next step

We are signing up the first Reigate businesses now

Tell us what you sell and we will come back with what it would look like for you, including the products that tend to work and what a realistic first month looks like. No obligation and no sales call unless you want one.