Easy, affordable delivery

Built to support local businesses

OpenLocal is a software platform cooperative created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that provides businesses with a simple, cost-effective way to deliver their goods to local customers. OpenLocal maximizes benefit to three key community stakeholders—businesses, delivery people, and customers. Through partnerships with municipalities, community organizations, and BIAs, OpenLocal can set up swiftly set up instances of the platform to provide needed delivery services for any community.

The problem:

Local retailers and restaurants that rely on foot traffic have seen a precipitous drop in revenue due to shelter-in-place and physical distancing restrictions. These restrictions will be a recurring fact of life over the next year. Rent support and other government programs to support workers are helping keep families housed and fed during this unprecedented time. There remains, however, an urgent need to support the local small business infrastructure, lest it close permanently and hollow out our communities.

The current delivery market is served by a range of private ordering and delivery services with a mixed bag of costly options; some take up to a 35% commission on each sale. This is not sustainable, nor fair. Local businesses like restaurants and retail shops now more than ever need a better, affordable way to get their goods to their customers.

The Solution:

The OpenLocal platform offers a simple and intuitive means for a customer to request home delivery or curbside pickup from any participating business. It’s designed to complement both low-tech phone orders and goods sold online through ubiquitous SMS messaging, or an optional smartphone app.

Our platform supports local businesses with affordable delivery, provides fair-wage opportunities for delivery people, and ensures that money continues to circulate locally, helping communities thrive.

Transaction Overview

A customer places an order with a local business (online or over the phone). The customer requests OpenLocal Delivery and agrees to a delivery fee.
The business initiates an OpenLocal delivery request. The request is sent to nearby OpenLocal drivers with a pickup time.
The delivery is picked up and the customer is notified that their delivery is in progress. Purchased goods are delivered to the customer and the driver is paid (or the customer’s OpenLocal account is debited).
Download our proposal to read more about the OpenLocal Delivery project, including our development timeline and details on our project partners.

Our Partners


The Centre for Social Innovation is a social enterprise based in Toronto, Canada, that specializes in the creation of shared workspaces for people or organizations with a social mission. The Centre's mission is to catalyze social innovation and to foster collaboration by connecting social innovators and entrepreneurs working across sectors. CSI also incubates a limited number of social innovations, providing them with programmatic, strategic, administrative and or financial services.

TWG is Canada’s premier software development firm that counts companies like RBC, Interac, Shopify, Loblaws and Freshbooks among its world class clients. Founded in 2002, TWG has built solutions for enterprise companies, not-for profit organizations, governments, and some of the fastest growing startups in Canada.

OCAD University (OCAD U) is the largest and most comprehensive art, design and media university in Canada. Founded in 1876, OCAD U is Canada’s university of the imagination, dedicated to art and design education, practice and research, and to knowledge and invention across a wide range of disciplines.

Code for Canada is a national nonprofit that connects government innovators with the tech and design community. Code for Canada's programs enable governments to deliver better digital public services and empower communities to solve civic challenges using technology and design.