East Ayrshire Gift Card success recognised by Cabinet
Back in 2020 - just as East Ayrshire Council’s Community Led Regeneration Team prepared to launch their innovative new East Ayrshire Gift Card scheme, designed to help boost local trade and encourage people to “Love Local” in their shopping habits - the country was plunged into lockdown.
It meant those very shops and businesses, which the card was supposed to support, had to close their doors to customers as the whole area experienced the terrible consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. For many traders, especially those without an established online profile, their big fear was that lockdown would drive loyal local customers to global shopping sites while they couldn’t access their local high streets.
But undaunted, the resourceful team, including Tracy Murray, Town Centre Regeneration Office, swung into action. By the time the East Ayrshire Gift card launched in August 2020, the team had already signed up 80 businesses throughout the area to sell and accept the cards in person and online - and so the popular means of supporting local was born.
Nearly two years later, over 200 businesses, in every part of East Ayrshire, have adopted the card. As Tracy explains, for many traders and their customers, it proved a great lifeline in difficult times.
“The aim of our team is to support life within our town centres, stimulating trade, supporting businesses and encouraging the public to shop local where possible. So when we decided to look for a way of supporting our “Love Local” messaging, the gift card scheme, supplied by Miconex, was a natural fit.
“Like other store cards, it can be bought and spent online and in person, but the big advantage with the East Ayrshire Gift Card is that it can be spent at such a wide variety of outlets, all over East Ayrshire, meaning that if you give a loved one a gift card, you’re not just giving them lots of choice, you’re also keeping the money circulating within the local economy, helping local businesses, supporting jobs and families within the area.
“When we launched, we saw gift giving as being the main use for the card. But we quickly realised its versatility – having this platform, together with ShopAppy.com, a virtual local high street, which we also brought to East Ayrshire during the pandemic, and which is now being run by Kilmarnock and Cumnock Business Associations, meant that we could help retailers build an online presence when their shops were closed, give them an opportunity to use click and collect facilities, and enable the public to continue to give gifts and spend their cards from the safety of their own homes during lockdown.
“As the pandemic progressed, all our services were working flat out, supporting those most in need, including families with children who qualified for free school meals who were being supplied with food. At Christmas 2020 this meant that 4030 Christmas Food boxes were distributed, and these included a £20 gift card, giving recipients dignity and the choice of where to spend their cards, just like anyone else.
“This was so successful that the Spring Campaign, at Easter 2021 extended the reach to 4520, including parents of children in early years education who qualified for extra support. This time, they received a £50 gift card.
“We know from feedback that this was a great boost to both the families concerned and the local retailers, many of whom commented that the gift cards were instrumental in boosting their turnover at a very difficult time. These schemes accounted for £306,600 of extra funding circulating in the local economy with the bulk of the cards being spent on food and clothing.
“To date we know that a very low percentage of the cards have not been spent, however, when they run out (we’ve already extended the one year deadline until the end of March for the Christmas cards and will do so until the end of June for the Spring cards) any money outstanding on the cards will be returned to the Council by Miconex and redistributed by our teams to those most in need.
“Also at Christmas 2020 and again in 2021, many companies realised they could not hold their usual Christmas parties for staff, so they turned to the gift card as a good way of rewarding staff for all their efforts while keeping everyone safe. Some have also used them as corporate gifts, or as part of bonus and incentive schemes. As with personal gift giving, use of the cards for this purpose has grown substantially as companies have realised the benefits of using the cards, while helping their fellow local businesses.
The pioneering efforts of the Town Centre Regeneration Team have not gone unnoticed nationally. At the 2021 Scotland Loves Local Awards run by Scotland’s Towns Partnership (STP), the Gift Card was awarded a Judges Special Award in recognition of their ground breaking use and promotion of the card. The Scottish Government, through STP is now supporting the rollout of a national gift card scheme, based on the best practice of the East Ayrshire team, and they continue to work closely together to develop the concept, branding, uses and uptake up of the card to develop it still further.
Cabinet noted the progress made in establishing the East Ayrshire Gift Card, recognising the economic and social benefits it has provided locally, while gaining national recognition. Members further agreed that any unspent balances from the Christmas and Spring campaigns should be recovered and redistributed and that the contract with suppliers Miconex and noted that funding remained in place to continue support until August 2022, with the Town Centre Regeneration working with Finance to identify funding to support the final year of the scheme in 2023 and look at future options.