The Cowichan Lake District Chamber of Commerce is promoting the use of gift cards to help local businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic.
A press release from the chamber said a lot of businesses promote gift cards online, but not all of them have the tools to sell gift cards when their doors are closed to the public.
“Therefore, we are now introducing a way to purchase gift cards through us,” the release said.
“People can now buy an e-gift card through the chamber for the participating business of their choice.”
According to the release, companies looking to participate can let the chamber know by emailing lcchamber@shaw.ca.
Customers email the chamber to indicate which business they’d like to buy a gift card for, and the chamber then sends the customers a link to make the purchase online using a credit card.
The chamber then sends the customer a digital certificate for the chosen business with a six-digit number on it.
“We send you [the business] the money, the six-digit number and their name,” the press release said.
“Later, when you reopen, you can check their name and number off on a list when they come in to purchase.”
The release said the chamber knows many businesses are struggling right now, so it doesn’t want to limit this service to chamber members only, so all business owners in the Cowichan Lake area are welcome to take part in the program.
“If you already have an e-gift card service for your business set up, email us the link and/or the promotional materials so we can include that in our e-gift promotion,” the release said.
“If you have any other ideas as to how the chamber can help, please feel free to email us. Our doors may be closed, but we are very much still in business for business.”