By Colin Munro, Managing Director, Miconex
“The main reason I choose gift cards for others is the worry about getting the right gift for them. The second is avoiding waste. I wouldn’t want to waste money on anything that they wouldn’t want, or burden them with a gift that they don’t need. The fact that a Town & City Gift Card is a multi-store gift card makes it an ideal gift because there’s something for everyone.” Consumer.
Choice has always been at the heart of the gift card purchase. People give gift cards because they reduce the risk of the purchaser selecting the ‘wrong’ gift and offer the recipient choice. Over recent years, choice as a driver for the gift card purchase has increased even further.
The Town & City Gift Card concept takes the idea of choice, and adds two additional strands, that of collaboration and community, bringing all types and sizes of local businesses together behind one gift card for the area. A gift card that can be spent with both high street stores and brands like Sainsbury’s, M&S, Boots, Primark and Spar, as well as small independent businesses, and across a whole range of sectors. From retail and hospitality to leisure and health & beauty. Town & City Gift Cards offer unbeatable local choice through one local gift card.
High street brands want to be a part of their local Town & City Gift Card because they drive footfall and sales, helping local communities to thrive, thus enhancing CSR efforts. Independent businesses want to be a part of their local Town & City Gift Card because it brings new customers through the door, puts money in the till and drives awareness. Customers want to be a part of their local Town & City Gift Card because they want to support local. And what unites them all is a desire to support locals and be a local hero.
Multi-store gift cards represented 38% of sales in 2021, up from 25.5% in 2020 (GCVA). In 2022, Town & City Gift Cards research, 67.3% of consumers said they would prefer to receive a multi-store gift card vs. a single retailer gift card. As well as wanting to receive multi-store gift cards, consumers want to buy them too, with 67.3% preferring to buy multi-store gift cards for others. Once again, it comes down to choice.
In the cost of living crisis, this desire to reduce the waste of unwanted gifts is only increasing. Give a gift card and you reduce the risk by offering choice. Give a multi-store gift card and you reduce the risk further by offering more choice. Give a Town & City Gift Card and you eliminate the risk by offering the ultimate multi-store gift card.
“When it comes to giving your staff a gift card as a reward, it’s about making the people that are receiving the card happy. The bigger the choice the better, whether it’s local or national. There was enough choice that we knew when we gave the Town & City Gift Cards to staff they would say ‘this is brilliant’, and ‘I go to these shops all the time so I can use this’.” Organisation leader.
This desire to be a local hero is extending to organisations too as they consider how best to reward and incentivise staff. In our 2022 survey, 84.5% of organisations said supporting local businesses is a factor when choosing rewards and incentives, and over 72% said having a mix of national brands and local businesses was important. Increasingly, organisations are turning to local gift cards to give their employees, volunteers, clients and customers increased choice but also to collaborate with businesses in their area, and make a tangible difference in the local community.
As to the scale of the difference that a local gift card can make, we need only look to communities around the world. Miconex’s closed loop Town & City Gift Cards, Downtown Gift Cards and the Scotland Loves Local Gift Card are being used in a variety of ways within communities, for purchase occasions through the year, as corporate rewards, and increasingly, to disburse funds to those in need and address socio economic challenges. In Scotland, a partnership with Scotland’s Towns Partnership and the Scottish Government saw local authorities across the country use Local Authority Covid-19 Economic Recovery (LACER) Funding to distribute the Scotland Loves Local Gift Card to struggling families. Disbursing funds through the gift card gave families dignity and choice, with hundreds of high street and independent businesses ready to accept their card, and food, clothes, toys and fuel just a gift card swipe away.
“I think the choice on offer with the Scotland Loves Local Gift Card is absolutely key, including high street stores and independents. We have to remember that the cards are being given to families in need, and they need to be able to spend the cards to get food and essentials.” Independent business owner.
As we move into 2023 and beyond, choice will continue to reign supreme in the gift card industry. Choice for customers, choice for organisations, choice for families in need. But in 2023, we will fully embrace the possibilities offered when we blend choice with collaboration and community, positively impacting our places, making local shopping the first choice and working together to ensure our businesses not only survive but truly thrive.
Find out more about how Miconex is transforming the gift card industry: https://miconexpartners.com/
