Donegal Town business group release new gift card to encourage shopping local

A business group has announced plans for a new gift card to make support for locals easy and user-friendly in Donegal Town.

Led by Donegal Town Business Focus Group, the physical and digital Donegal Town Gift Card will replace the paper Shop Local Vouchers which have generated over €1.5 million in sales since launching in 2016.

The Donegal Town Business Focus Group say their new gift card is vital to stop money earmarked for Donegal leaving the town. Merchants in the town are currently being registered to accept the new gift card.

It’s set to launch before Christmas. Retail, hospitality, accommodation, health and beauty and services businesses will all be represented on the new gift card.

The gift card works with merchants’ existing payment terminals, with no additional equipment required. The balance on the gift card is automatically updated, with recipients able to check their balance online at any time.

“Our Shop Local Vouchers were incredibly successful for our small town but we’ve reached the stage where the initiative has grown as big as it can due to the limitations of paper vouchers,” said Raymond Rooney from the Donegal Town Business Focus Group.

“The new Donegal Town Gift Card will take us to the next stage of growth, making it easy for organisations and consumers to support local.

“It’s vital for Donegal to have its own gift card because without it, consumers and organisations are left with national gift cards that can only be spent in a few businesses in town – not many businesses accept them because of the high commission rate. That means money earmarked for Donegal leaves Donegal, and we don’t want that.

“The gift card is a no-brainer for businesses to accept and customers to buy because it’s easy and user-friendly. The old vouchers were quite large and too big to carry around, whereas the new physical gift card will fit into a wallet or purse, and the e-card version can be added to their digital wallets. Anything that facilitates spending locally is a good thing.”

The Donegal Town Gift Card will be part of the multi award winning Town and City Gift Card concept active across Ireland in Ballinrobe, Carndonagh, Drogheda, Letterkenny, Sligo and Waterford. Over €7 million Town and City Gift Cards were sold in Ireland in 2023, with around 80% of sales to organisations for staff rewards and incentives.

“Donegal Town has achieved great success with their paper vouchers but the limitations around security, ease of use and merchant redemption can make it difficult for paper programs to fully unlock the 'shop local' potential of a town or city,” commented Colin Munro, managing director of Miconex.

“The forthcoming Donegal Town gift card will utilise tried and tested technology to make shop local easy, attractive and convenient. We’ll be working closely with the Donegal Town Business Focus Group and its members to help them to transition to a modern gift card that aligns with the ambitions of the town.”