A new partnership aimed at supporting high streets across Scotland has been formed – allowing shoppers to use gift cards in their local stores.
Perth-based gift card operator Miconex is partnering with Edinburgh group collecting platform GiftRound in a move that is set to drive an estimated £1 million annually into towns and cities.
The firms specialise in gifting and are collaborating to enhance accessibility to local businesses, including independent and national retail, hospitality, health/beauty and services.
Miconex’s local gift cards for 13 regions in Scotland, plus towns and cities across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland, are set to be available in the GiftRound store over the coming weeks.
Local gift cards for Scotland to be added to the GiftRound platform include Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Argyll and Bute, Dundee, East Ayrshire, East Lothian, Edinburgh, Fife, Glasgow, Inverness, Kirkwall, Moray and Perth & Kinross.
Town & City Gift Cards, plus Scotland Loves Local Gift Cards delivered by Miconex alongside Scotland’s Towns Partnership, can be spent with all types and sizes of local businesses, encouraging local shopping, driving footfall and locking spend into local economies.
GiftRound was founded in 2018, giving people an easy way to collect money for various occasions. Over 100,000 collections have been created to date with over £5 million in gift cards/vouchers ordered through the platform.
GiftRound’s top collections are for leaving gifts, followed by new babies, weddings and the end of the school year, with an average GiftRound of £140.
Originally offering only Marks & Spencer and John Lewis gift cards for recipients, the GiftRound store has expanded to include a range of gift cards and physical gifts including flowers, with people able to spend their collections across a number of product categories. There’s also an option to print the comments from contributors on a card.
Craig Forsythe, CEO & founder at GiftRound, said: “GiftRound was an idea that I came up with 10 years ago as a solution to the office problem of trying to collect money for a gift. Someone would always put the card in their desk drawer and it would get lost. But things really kicked off for GiftRound in the pandemic with the cultural shift towards remote working. With GiftRound, we’re injecting the joy into gifting, making the process celebratory and helping the recipient to get a nicer gift at the end.
“The partnership with Miconex came about due to demand from our customers for local gift cards to be added to the GiftRound store. We estimate that making Town & City Gift Cards and Scotland Loves Local Gift Cards available through our platform could generate £1 million of local gift card orders annually.”
Founded in Perth, Miconex now operates over 200 local gift card programmes globally.
Colin Munro, managing director of Miconex, said: “The partnership with GiftRound comes at a time when appetite for supporting local businesses has never been higher. Over £12.4 million of our local gift cards were purchased in 2023. In 2024, demand for our local gift cards is up 69% because they tap into key gifting trends such as support for local, avoiding waste and a preference for gift cards that offer choice.”