Three North West towns and cities are "fighting back" with gift card schemes designed to help the high street recover from the ongoing coronavirus restrictions.
Chester, Preston and towns around Knowsley are all set to introduce town and city gift cards - locking in spend to their local economies.
All three are set to introduce the schemes in partnership with Scottish fintech firm Miconex this month, with each gift card set to be branded to the area, encouraging residents and visitors to shop local.
In Chester, the Business Improvement District (BID) will use the gift card as part of its bid to encourage residents to support the city. More than 100 businesses are set to take part, including Storyhouse and Chester Grosvenor.
Carl Critchlow, BID Manager, said businesses in the city are reeling from “restriction whiplash”.
He said: “Because of our position right on the border with Wales, around 50% of our shoppers come from Wales. When the Welsh restrictions were introduced, 25% of hospitality bookings were cancelled.
"Customer confidence has been hammered but one thing we have noticed is that the Christmas season has started earlier.
"Businesses need our support more than ever.”
As a prepaid Mastercard, the gift card works like local currency. The programme received the accolade for the best use of prepaid at September’s Incentive Awards. More than 50 places around the UK and Ireland have programmes.
Preston, Knowsley and Chester will be the first for the North West.
Chester introduced its gift card with a seven-week Christmas campaign. Mr Critchlow said the message should be "say no to Amazon, say yes to Chester”.
He added: “The feedback to the introduction of the card has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s about packaging the whole city as one organism, and how all of the businesses work together to give a robust experience of Chester. People like to say the high street is dying but it’s more that it’s evolving.”
In Knowsley, the scheme is part of the £120,000 Shop Local Investment Programme.
The new Knowsley Town Centres Gift Card can be used in the three main towns in the borough: Huyton, Kirkby and Prescot.
Councillor Tony Brennan, Knowsley Council Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Economic Development, said the card was "integral" to the authority's masterplan for the future of its town centres up to 2030.
He added: “Our town centres are changing and facilitating that change is top of our agenda. We are keen to create diverse and attractive visitor destinations that shoppers and residents can enjoy and take a sense of pride in.
"The introduction of the Knowsley Town Centres Gift Card will contribute towards this aim.
“In Kirkby, the council recently acquired the town centre from St Modwen and we are creating a new retail development anchored by a Morrisons superstore, with plans to also create a cinema scheme."
The Preston Gift Card was introduced in November, and Jonathan Halton from the town's BID said it would help the city's recovery efforts.
He said: “It’s crucially important that we work to encourage loyal locals to keep spend circulating in their city centre economy, whilst also providing a wide choice of where to spend their well-earned money.
“The Preston Gift Card will provide shoppers with a great local alternative to existing national cards. We’re absolutely committed to helping to drive local spend and consistently promoting a ‘shop local’ message. Our focus remains on helping city centre businesses to recover from the Covid crisis, and flourish beyond.”
New gift card programmes will be introduced in November in Ireland, the North East, South East, Scotland and Yorkshire, Miconex added.
