Sunderland Gift Card joins national gifting platform

Gifting local just got easier as the Sunderland Gift Card joins group collecting platform GiftRound.

The Sunderland Gift Card launched in November 2020 and can be spent with almost 200 local businesses, including shops, restaurants, salons, hotels and venues, part of the Town & City Gift Card initiative from fintech Miconex. £274,000 of Sunderland Gift Cards have been sold to date.

Edinburgh based online group collecting platform, GiftRound was founded in 2018, giving people an easy way to collect money for various occasions. Over 100,000 collections have been created through GiftRound with over £5 million in gift cards/vouchers ordered via 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.

The addition of the Sunderland Gift Card to the GiftRound store is part of a wider onboarding of Miconex’s Town & City Gift cards for 34 towns and cities in Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland.

Town & City Gift Cards can be spent with all types and sizes of local businesses, encouraging local shopping, driving footfall and locking spend into local economies.

Craig Forsythe, CEO & founder at GiftRound said the addition of the Sunderland Gift Card makes supporting local businesses easier than ever.

“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 reigniting the joy of 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. As well as adding the Sunderland Gift Card and many other local gift cards, physical gifts are also available, 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 GiftRound greeting card.

“Giving recipients access to a range of local businesses, and supporting smaller quality retailers and independent businesses through the Sunderland Gift Card, is the magic of our collaboration with Miconex and the Town & City Gift Card initiative. Most people want to support local but it has to be easy and this partnership makes supporting local easier than ever.”

Sharon Appleby from the Sunderland Gift Card said: “The Sunderland Gift Card being available on GiftRound is exciting and will bring the power of shop local to new audiences. Workplaces or groups of people can use GiftRound to collect money online for occasions like office gifts or the end of the school term, and then choose our local gift card to spend the collection on, giving the recipient the choice of almost 200 fantastic local businesses and boosting our local economy.”

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.

“The Sunderland Gift Card is unique in that it offers a blend of national brands with independent businesses. Our collaboration with GiftRound will drive even more footfall in our high streets, giving people money to spend with local businesses and ultimate local choice in one gift card.”

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