New Big Heart of Swansea Gift Card Will Help Shoppers Show Their Love For City Centre Businesses

Swansea BID (Business Improvement District) is urging shoppers and visitors to show their love for Swansea city centre businesses by backing its new Big Heart of Swansea gift card. The card, which will be exclusive to Swansea city centre, is designed to boost local spending and customer loyalty and to support BID area businesses as the city centre goes through its recovery stage. It can be loaded with money from £5 to £500 and spent in participating Swansea city centre stores including:

Ernest Jones

H Samuel

Marks & Spencer

New Look

Primark

Schuh

Forever Gold

Falafel Stall

Light Company

Boosh Beauty

Gamers’ Emporium

Gifts & Co

Tesco

Maxx Cash

Andrew Douglas, Swansea BID Operations Manager, said: “This exciting initiative will help to encourage shoppers and visitors to spend within Swansea city centre and it will help keep that money locked into the local economy. The Big Heart of Swansea Gift Card cards are available to buy online at swanseagiftcard.com  and in participating businesses in denominations from £5-£500. These sustainable, bamboo cards can be used with a variety of participating businesses in the city centre on shopping, food and drink, accommodation, leisure and attractions and services, with more firms joining up all the time. Consumers just need to look out for the stickers and Point of Sale signs that show where they can use the card easily and simply in the shops and businesses they love. The card is also available electronically – so they can be used as part of an e-wallet. TheBig Heart of Swansea Gift Card is part of the Town and City Gift Card programme from fintech Miconex, which has already proven to be a success in Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil and Newport.

Andrew adds: “It is so important that BIDs and other city centre stakeholders find imaginative ways to support town and city centres and to give consumers and businesses a real sense of ownership of their shopping and visiting environment – and the Big Heart of Swansea gift card is a great tool in helping us do this. Our town and city centres are the beating heart of the Welsh economy and they need to be nurtured now more than ever. Initiatives like this one send the very positive message that Swansea city centre is open for business, and it needs the support of consumers in moving onto its next successful chapter.”

Any further businesses who want to register their interest in their business being signed up to the Big Heart of Swansea gift card, please contact andrew@swanseabid.co.uk. Shopping habits are continuing to evolve, and it is important that we do everything we can to give consumers what they want and need in order to spend locally, particularly as our city centre starts to recover from a very testing period.”

Colin Munro, Managing Director of Miconex said: “Swansea is one of the first cities in the UK to have its own digital gift card. Gift cards are incredibly popular. 76% of people have purchased a gift card in the last three years and a quarter of gift card sales were made specifically to support local businesses. At the moment, 54.8% of gift card redemptions are in store but there is also a trend towards online and mobile redemption. The Big Heart of Swansea gift card offers customers ultimate choice in how they buy and spend their gift card, with the opportunity to support local businesses at the same time.”

To buy the Big Heart of Swansea gift card, please go to: swanseagiftcard.com