Help centre

What is LocalFor.Me?

LocalFor.Me is a local-first directory and commerce platform for verified UK and Isle of Man shops, makers and tradespeople. Here is what it does and who it is for.

Creating an account & signing in

How to sign up with email and password or a social login, confirm your email, log in and log out, and how a shopper account relates to listing a business.

"Which kind of listing do you need?"

A quick decision guide to the four ways to set up a listing — a simple priced product, several sizes (price tiers), a made-to-order item buyers customise, or a service with Enquire pricing — and which tutorial to follow for each.

"Tutorial: list your first product in 5 minutes"

A complete worked example — create a simple fixed-price product (a £45 bouquet), add photos, set fulfilment and stock, preview it, and publish. Everything a standard product needs, start to finish.

"Tutorial: sell one product in several sizes (price tiers)"

A worked example using price tiers — list one product in Small, Medium and Large with different prices, descriptions, lead-time notes and minimum order quantities. The storefront shows "From £X" and a size picker.

"Tutorial: a made-to-order product buyers customise"

A full worked example of the options builder — a custom cake with a base price plus choices (size, flavour, fillings, a photo upload and a message) that stack up the price, lead-time estimates, conditional choices, and holding the buyer's card until you approve. The buyer builds the price themselves.

"Tutorial: list a service with Enquire pricing"

A worked example for services — list a personal-training session with "Enquire for price" so buyers message you for a quote, set Service fulfilment, and use scheduling to show it only during the hours you work (with weekly repeats).

"Tutorial: add a café item to your kiosk menu"

A worked example for venues — put an item on your scan-to-order kiosk menu, price it for counter pickup, and use scheduling so it only appears during service. Builds on the Kiosk add-on.

Listing your business: the application

A walk-through of the five-step application wizard — Basics, Categories, Location, Photos and Review & submit — plus how to pick your localfor.me web address.

Your business dashboard

The manage overview is your home base for running a business on LocalFor.Me — it shows your status, key numbers, and links to everything from items to orders to insights.

Choosing your business categories

How the Categories step works — picking subcategories from the Products and Services tabs, how many to choose, and why they matter for being found in search.

Editing your business profile

Update your name, description, contact details, logo, cover banner, location and categories from the Edit screens — and learn which changes save instantly and which send your live listing back for re-review.

Your location & service area

How to set your primary address and postcode on the Location step, why the postcode matters, and how the map pin lets you fine-tune exactly where you appear.

Your public storefront

A walkthrough of what shoppers see at your /b/<slug>/ page — the cover banner with your logo, the items grid grouped into shop sections, recommendations, location and contact — and how to preview it before it goes live.

Verification & documents

The wizard's Photos step (logo and cover image), and how verification documents — added later from Manage → Edit → Verification — earn a Verified badge. GB Companies House vs Isle of Man, and how uploads are kept private.

After you apply — review & approval

What happens once you hit Submit — the review queue, how long it takes, what our team checks, and what approval unlocks for your listing.

Use your own domain

Serve your shop on your own web address (yourshop.com), un-branded — your storefront with none of the LocalFor.Me header or footer. Connect it with two DNS records.

Adding team members

Invite another email to help manage your business. Managers can run the whole dashboard — items, orders, messages and settings. Only owners can change who's on the team.

Your storefront link & standalone mode

Find and share your shop's web address, and optionally present it as a standalone, debranded site to outside visitors.

Customer feedback — your QR code

Print a QR code customers scan to leave anonymous feedback — an issue, general feedback or a suggestion — and manage what comes in from your feedback inbox.

Adding & editing an item

How to create a new item as a draft, fill in the editor fields, add your pricing and details, and save your listing.

Adding photos and videos to an item

Upload photos to a listing, set the hero image, reorder your gallery, add captions and link YouTube videos so buyers see your product at its best.

Pricing your items

Set a price in pounds, add named price options (tiers), require a minimum order quantity, or use Enquire for price for bespoke work.

Choosing item categories

How to use the 1–5 category picker on an item: type-ahead search, browsing Products and Services, adding chips, and the five-category limit.

Fulfilment options: post, pickup or service

Choose how you get items to buyers — Post only, Pickup only, Post or pickup, or Service — set a business default and override it per item.

Organising your shop with sections

Create your own shop sections like Bouquets or Gifts, assign items to them, reorder them, and understand how they differ from platform categories and group your storefront.

Item status: draft, active, disabled & removing items

What each item status means, how to publish, how to temporarily hide an item, and how to delete, restore, and permanently clear items from the Removed items page.

Scheduling item availability

Show an item only during a set window — a one-off date range or a repeating daily, weekly, monthly or annual schedule. Out-of-window items are hidden from shoppers.

Customisable (made-to-order) products

Let buyers personalise an item — choose a size, pick options, add text, upload a photo — with each choice adjusting the price. Build the options, set dependencies, and require approval before charging.

Receiving & managing orders

Use your orders dashboard to approve or decline new requests, mark orders shipped with tracking, issue refunds, and follow each order through its statuses.

Getting paid

Connect your business to Stripe so you can take payments and receive payouts. Covers Stripe Connect (Express) onboarding, the platform fee, and what has to be in place before checkout works.

Insights & analytics

Your insights page summarises the last 30 days of trading: revenue trend, order volume, average order value, refund rate, repeat buyers, your best-selling items, per-item performance (views, favourites, sales) and how profile views turn into orders.

Kiosk — scan-to-order for your venue

Kiosk is a paid add-on for cafés, bars and restaurants. Print a QR, customers scan to your menu, order against their name, and orders appear on a live display your staff work from.

Vouchers — discount codes for your shop

Vouchers is a paid add-on that lets you run discount codes — a percentage or a fixed amount off — with an optional usage cap and expiry. Shoppers enter the code at your checkout and it comes off their total.

Storage upgrade — more images and products

A paid add-on that raises your limits — 2 GB of image storage (up from 200 MB) and 450 products (up from 50). One plan covers both.

Finding local businesses and products

Browse all products with filters, search by keyword and postcode, browse the A-Z category directory, and use distance to find verified local businesses and their products near you.

Saving favourites

Tap the heart to save a business or a product, then find everything you've saved on your Favourites page.

Buying: basket and checkout

How to add products to a basket, check out securely with card, and what happens for enquiry-only items where you contact the seller instead.

Recommending a business

How the 'Recommended by N' trust signal works — recommendations come from real buyers, are a simple yes, and refresh over time.

Messaging a business

Ask a business a question before you buy, and keep every conversation in one inbox.

Inviting a local business

Help a local shop, maker or tradesperson get listed — email them an invite, or generate a shareable link you can send or post anywhere.

Beta features

Opt in to try features we're still finishing, before they launch for everyone.

Managing your account

Update your profile, manage saved addresses and cards, sign out, and request deletion of your data.

Troubleshooting and FAQ

Quick fixes for common issues — sign-in problems, items not showing in search, missing categories, images not appearing — and how to get help.

Contacting support

Raise a support ticket with the LocalFor.Me team and track their replies in one place.