About Searchbox
Built for the businesses that start at home.
Across Sri Lanka, some of the best things you can buy are made in a kitchen, a spare room or a small workshop behind the house. Searchbox exists so the people who make them can be found.
Where it starts
A home business usually begins with one product and a few people who love it. A batch of cakes for a neighbour’s celebration. Handloom cushions for relatives. Soap made in small runs on a Sunday. Word spreads, orders come in, and for a while that is enough.
Then growth slows. Not because the product isn’t good, but because the business has no shopfront, no website and no simple way to reach people beyond those who already know it. Sales depend on social media posts that are gone in a day, on messages answered late at night, and on customers being willing to pay someone they have never met.
Many of these businesses are run alongside family responsibilities: by parents working from home, by retirees with a lifelong skill, by young people testing an idea, and by families building a second income. They put real care into what they make. Selling it should not be the hardest part.
What gets in the way
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Hard to be found
Shoppers search for products, not for people. A seller working from home rarely appears when someone looks for “handmade candles in Kandy”.
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Trust takes time
Without a shop or a website, new customers hesitate to order and pay. Every sale has to start from zero.
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Selling online costs too much
Building a website, paying commission on every order or running ads takes money most small businesses don’t have to spare.
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Too much is done by hand
Orders, stock and delivery are tracked in chats and notebooks, which leaves less time for making the product itself.
How Searchbox helps
- Found by product and place
- Every product can be searched by what it is and where it is made, so local shoppers can find you without knowing your name.
- A checked, trusted seller
- We review every business before its products go live and show it on your shop page, so buyers know there is a real person behind each order.
- No commission on your sales
- One simple monthly plan, and 0% taken from what you sell. What a customer pays for your product stays with you.
- Your whole shop in one place
- Products, orders, stock, delivery areas and customers in one dashboard that works on your phone.
What we stand for
- Local firstWe put nearby makers in front of nearby buyers, and help money stay in the community.
- Honest by defaultClear prices, real reviews and sponsored places that are always labelled.
- Small is welcomeYou don’t need a warehouse or a big budget to sell here. You need a good product and care for your customers.
When someone looks for something made with care, they should find the person down the road who makes it.
100 of 100 launch spots left. No card needed.