Miconex launches new digital gifting product for local payments in towns and cities

By Gaia Lamperti

Pioneering FinTech Miconex, which works with towns and cities across the world to support successful local economies, launched a first of its kind digital gifting product under its new global Love Local brand. The product, a digital gift card specifically designed for local payments in towns and cities, will work through the MasterCard network and digital wallet services such as Apple Pay.

Miconex already operates over 100 Town and City Gift Card programmes in the UK and Ireland, as well as Downtown Gift Card systems across North America. Thanks to these programmes the firm is helping to unify a wide range of businesses behind a single local gift card, creating a secure, flexible gift and reward product for consumers and employers.

To accompany the new digital gift card, the payment provider developed the Love Local app enabling recipients to add the digital gift card balance to their Apple Wallet or other digital wallets, view participating businesses, see their balance and spend online or in-store. The Love Local brand aims to become an umbrella brand for Miconex’s Town and City Gift Card programmes in the UK and Ireland, but it was created for universal appeal.

“Developing the Love Local brand allows us to convert that love local sentiment into spend, in a brand that will be as recognised and understood in Cambridge UK as Cambridge Canada,” Colin Munro, Managing Director of Miconex, commented. “It also provides us with flexibility as we continue to develop new products for different use cases, and new tools for businesses and places to interact directly with an engaged consumer audience. The potential for Love Local is huge.”

Munro added that the introduction of digital gift cards was prompted by demand from towns and cities combined with consumer trends. According to the 2021 GCVA State of the Nation report, the pandemic accelerated the demand for digital gift cards, with 38.4% of respondents converting to digital gift cards. Particularly in the UK, the gift card market is worth an estimated £7 billion, £4.65 billion from consumer sales and £2.34 billion from rewards and incentives.

“An estimated 1 in 3 adults are said to choose gifts based on how soon they can get them. For consumers, digital gift cards are instant, meaning they can send a last-minute gift conveniently, whilst also supporting local businesses,” Munro said. “Ease of use for consumers is paramount, as is the trend towards mobile payments which is particularly pronounced in the UK.”

In 2019, 81% of Brits were using some form of online payment, the highest percentage in the world and it is estimated that by 2022, mobile payments will overtake both cash and credit cards as the preferred payment method, second only to debit cards.

There is also a clear move towards local shopping with a reported 2000% year on year increase in online searches for ‘support local businesses’ and almost a quarter of consumers (24.9%) saying they plan to continue using gift cards to support local businesses, the GCVA report found.

Miconex’s new digital product will focus specifically on younger demographics to help towns and cities engage them more with gift card programmes, Munro explained. “Data from our 2020 Christmas period sales showed that our gift card transactions were largely driven by Boomers (55 plus) at 34.88% and Generation X (35-54) at 32.33%, demonstrating the growth potential of the Millennial (25-34) and Generation Z (16-24) age groups. We also know that it is younger consumers that are particularly driven to support local through gift card purchases, 17.1% across the generations in 2020, but 25.2% in the 25-44 age group.”

Benefits of digital gift cards include online shopping made easy, flexibility and a focus on sustainability. Miconex’s new digital gifting product will also come with a new pricing structure to make it more accessible for towns and cities to adopt.