Locorum lives for local – GROW Accelerator Company Highlight

Shopping locally has been an important sentiment since the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic. With local and small businesses closing at a rapid rate, consumers have pushed local shopping as a way to support business owners and create a community where businesses and customers can shop from small business owners with knowledge and intention. London-based Locorum has created a way to make finding, hiring, and purchasing from local businesses easier, launching an ingenious platform that will propel local shopping to new heights. With a simplified search to find the things you need, Locorum can help consumers find and hire service providers and shop their local business directory with rewards. 

Locorum, quite literally translated to the Latin word for “protector of local”, is an online platform for hiring local service providers, from landscapers to real estate agents, and everything in between. It includes trusted, verified reviews from other members, and as incentive and reward, earns customers unlimited cash rewards when they hire service providers through Locorum. These rewards can then be spent at hundreds of local businesses within their redeem directory, keeping London-local hiring and spending together in a continuous loop of support. Co-founders Jeff Duke, Matthew Santagapita, and Carlon Farina each have their own history with the trials and tribulations of small businesses. With entrepreneurial parents who have been affected by the shift to large box stores, or their own small business journey of their own, they have seen first-hand the power that consumers have when they choose to shop locally. “Locorum exists to support local businesses and the entrepreneurs that operate them”, says Carlon Farina, Co-founder and Marketing Director of Locorum, “We provide Canadians with an easy way to find, hire, and shop from local businesses that make our communities unique.” 

Locorum initially piloted an e-commerce store where people could find and shop from a list of local businesses in one place.  Focusing on creating a platform that served a purpose that nobody had seen or utilized before, Locorum then molded into what it is now – a plug and play solution for service providers and product-based businesses to tap into local consumers and keep money within communities. With over 165 businesses already on the platform pre-launch and an anticipated full launch in January 2022, Locorum’s ideations have received local praise from businesses thankful for their action and attention to the small business crisis that the economy has faced since the beginning of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Focusing on building Locorum in a way that benefits business owners above all else, the co-founders sparked an abundance of joy for local shoppers and business owners alike.  

Here’s how it works: Locorum has partnered with Mastercard to provide a Locorum Rewards Mastercard, a pre-loaded card for cash rewards on their platform. Any time that you hire a service provider through the platform, you will receive rewards onto the card. Those rewards can then be spent on their curated business directory (London’s largest small business directory) where over 600 product-based local businesses are listed and shoppable with your rewards. This platform is capable of creating a micro-economy of small businesses where consumers can put their focus into the products and services they are shopping for. Taking the work out of the important focus on shopping small and local will allow for more support, exposure, and amplification for each individual business who will be greatly and positively affected by the work Locorum is doing for our London economy.  

Locorum’s recent participation in TechAlliance’s GROW Accelerator has put them a step ahead in their ability to focus and network with the community and region of small businesses. Receiving advice from industry experts with open ears and a willingness to better the company, Locorum persists with their main purpose being for small business owners to thrive. The GROW accelerator allows for an entrepreneurial push to continue their expansion post-January launch. “We really want to continue to learn, grow, network, and utilize what is regionally provided for us in order to create the best product and serve our local community the best way possible”, said Farina, “Our goal is to expand into Toronto by March 2022 and be in every major city in Canada within the next 12 months”. With applaudable goals and a trajectory that is bound to set them up for scalable success, Locorum has continued their commitment to putting businesses first. No matter how much this company expands, or how quickly it becomes a shopping staple in Canada’s major cities, we know that their main intent has and will always be to put small and local businesses at the forefront of their platform. Giving a voice to the little guys and a space for them to thrive, Locorum is a business built to help business, and better yet, to do it locally. 

To learn more about Locorum, shop, or join their directory, go to www.locorum.ca 

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