With over 70 businesses signed up to accept the Gloucester Gift Card in the city, there are plenty of opportunities to shop local.
Gloucester BID is now launching a campaign to sign-up more businesses in the run-up to Christmas to get them on-board the beneficial scheme.
The Gloucester Gift Card acts as a local currency, keeping spend within the city. BID promotes the businesses who accept the cards as a form of payment. Every month, cards are redeemed at both independent and national member stores. There was £379 spent in Gloucester last August and this amount is expected to triple over December and January when cards are used and gifted the most.
Gloucester BID will be signing up businesses over the coming weeks: the latest sign-ups are Coal Kitchen and Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum. The process is easy and free. BID can onboard the business or they can do it themselves via the link here.
The Gloucester Gift Card launched in November 2019 as a multi-venue gift card that can be spent with all types of businesses in Gloucester, such as retail, leisure and hospitality, and is designed to lock in spend to Gloucester and encourage consumers to shop locally.
Cards can be purchased online here or at the Museum of Gloucester and the National Waterways Museum for £5-£500 and redeemed in a variety of places in Gloucester. See full list here. Each Gloucester Gift Card is a prepaid Mastercard, offering a secure way to gift.
All businesses in Gloucester that have a card reader can be a part of the scheme for free, and there are no additional costs or training needs for merchants. The scheme is an initiative from Gloucester Business Improvement District with technology provided by Miconex through its Town and City Gift Cards programme.
The Town and City Gift Cards programme has seen rapid expansion in 2020 with active programmes in over 50 places in the UK and Ireland following increased interest in shopping local.
Vice chair of Gloucester BID Chris Nyland said being a part of the Gloucester Gift Card scheme is a positive move for businesses. ‘The average people spend on a Town and City Gift Card is £34.56 and when people receive a Gloucester Gift Card, on average they’ll spend 65% more on top of this. The more businesses that are part of the Gloucester Gift Card, the more money is locked into Gloucester to support local jobs and local economic recovery.’
