Gift card idea could provide city centre boost
SHOPPERS could soon be using a new method to make their purchases in the centre of Inverness with the city’s own gift card.
Inverness Business Improvement District (Bid) has been looking at the possibility of introducing a gift card which can be used at Bid member businesses and encourage more people to support their local economy.
Bid manager Mike Smith confirmed the idea was under consideration and he would be reporting to the board on the proposal within the next few weeks.
He said: "There is a fair degree of investment involved and risk attached because you have to meet the cost of setting the whole thing up and there are different ways of doing it.
"But it is something we will have a look at because we need to encourage engagement with our businesses."
A gift card scheme was launched in Elgin earlier this year by the town’s own Bid, known as Elgin Embrace, and has attracted interest from Inverness.
It is one of more than 20 towns and cities around the UK using a gift card developed by former Highland resident Colin Munro and his company Miconex.
Perth, the West End district of Glasgow, Sheffield and Cardiff are among the locations which have set up their own schemes.
Some 70 businesses, including national chains and local independents, have signed up to the Elgin gift card.
However, Elgin Embrace manager Gill Neill warned that a successful gift card scheme required a large initial investment.
"We did it on behalf of all our members because it is an incredibly expensive programme to put together," she said.
"Set up costs are in the region of £20,000, so you will find that most of the town gift cards are being run by business improvement districts on behalf of their membership.
"The businesses in the town have been really, really responsive and really positive, but I think a big part of that is we are covering the costs.
"I strongly suspect that if we had not and had been asking people to pay, you would not have had the same uptake."
The initiative has also been well received by shoppers in the town.
"The public see it as a very positive thing," she added.
"Rather than being given a specific gift card that they use in one shop, they get an Elgin Gift Card that they can used in one of the 70 places in the town.
"They can use it to buy clothes, get their hair done, have a meal or put it towards a holiday or buying furniture.
"People are still very positive about embracing the Shop Local message and we hope this will encourage people to perhaps visit businesses they have never used before.
"From the point of view of what a Bid is trying to do, it’s meeting its aim."
Inverness Chamber of Commerce president Liam Christie sees the prospective Inverness card as a good move for the Highland capital.
"It’s a good way of getting people back into the city centre," he said.
