Delivered by fintech Miconex, the Town & City Gift Cards concept is active across Ireland in Ballinrobe, Carndonagh, Cavan, Drogheda, Donegal Town, Dungarvan & West Waterford, Kilkenny, Limerick, Letterkenny, Monaghan, Mullingar, Macroom, Sligo, Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford. The cards amplify the local offering to encourage local support, locking spend into Irish communities.
Miconex has estimated that the €17.4m will drive 335,000 specific visits to high streets and shopping districts in 2026, based on estimates of 3 trips into town per gift card. Cards have to be spent in person, driving footfall and spend to participating businesses, including big brands and independent businesses, across a range of sectors.
A number of chambers and business organisations have upgraded their paper ‘shop local’ programmes to high tech physical and digital gift cards alongside Miconex, with Mullingar Chamber, Dungarvan & West Waterford Chamber, County Monaghan and Macroom Business Association making the move from paper voucher schemes in 2025.
Letterkenny Chamber, founders of the trailblazing ShopLK Gift Card joined the Town & City Gift Cards network in 2024, enabling the initiative to elevate its offering with the addition of a digital card, offer bulk sales through a dedicated corporate order site, and avail of a Donegal based customer service team. The ShopLK Gift Card achieved over €9m in sales in 2025, up from over €5.7m in 2023.
Jimmy Stafford, President of Letterkenny Chamber, said: “Each year since our ShopLK Gift Cards were launched, we have had year on year sales increases. We were cautious this year with making a prediction after hitting such a huge milestone in 2024, so we have been blown away by this figure that has far exceeded all our expectations. ShopLK is the biggest town gift card programme in Ireland and the UK. It is testament to the many years of building the brand, always endeavouring to innovate and most importantly having the support of the public and businesses of Letterkenny.”
Donegal Town upgraded its paper Shop Local vouchers to a modern gift card with Miconex in 2024. First introduced by the Donegal Town Business Focus Group in 1997 to help keep money local, the group wanted to build on the buy and spend local mind-set developed in the town with a gift card format people are familiar with. Donegal Town achieved over €640,000 in sales in 2025, an 84% increase on the previous year.
Gareth Britton, chairperson of Donegal Town Business Focus Group, said: “The transition to the new gift card with Miconex has been a positive move. Sales were very strong in 2025, which is down to the new card and how easy and convenient it is to use.”
Mullingar Chamber introduced their paper vouchers in 2012 and were keen to eliminate issues such as recipients not receiving change from paper vouchers and the administration involved for businesses to get paid. They switched to the Mullingar Gift Card with Miconex in early 2025.
Lauren Gregory from Mullingar Chamber commented: “The Mullingar Gift Card has been a major success for us in 2025. Having only joined the scheme in March, it has already delivered a €60,000 increase in sales and generated huge interest from businesses eager to come on board. The move away from a paper voucher scheme was a real game-changer, particularly during the busy Christmas period, allowing for a far more efficient and smoothly run office. We are delighted with the progress to date and have even bigger targets set for the year ahead. It has been a fantastic example of how modern solutions can drive growth for both the Chamber and our local business community.”
Dungarvan and West Waterford Chamber transitioned from their paper vouchers to their Dungarvan & West Waterford Gift Card for Christmas 2025.
Jenny Beresford, CEO at Dungarvan and West Waterford Chamber said: “Transitioning from paper vouchers to the Miconex backed gift card was one of the most significant change projects the Chamber has led, and the results have exceeded expectations. The move modernised a long-established scheme while retaining strong local loyalty. Clear communication, hands-on business support and the ease of use for both purchasers and retailers have all contributed to the success. The performance to date demonstrates strong confidence in the local economy and shows that when the right infrastructure is in place, people are very willing to keep their spending local.”
Kilkenny Chamber achieved €290,825 in sales of the Kilkenny Gift Card in 2025, double that of 2024, after joining the Town & City Gift Cards network in November 2024 as a joint collaboration between Kilkenny Chamber and Kilkenny County Council.
John Hurley, CEO Kilkenny Chamber, commented: “The support from local people – whether it’s the outlets joining the Kilkenny Gift Card programme, the employers who purchased the cards as end of year bonuses, or the general public who purchased the cards as Christmas presents – has been phenomenal, and the programme can only grow from here.”
Some Irish towns chose to introduce a gift card from scratch. Sligo introduced the Love Sligo Gift Card to lock spend into the community and provide support for a range of sectors. Local community platform County Sligo LEADER Partnership funded 75% of the launch costs for the card. The card achieved €2m in sales in 2 years.
Gail McGibbon, Sligo Business Improvement District (BID) CEO, said: “Sligo BID is delighted in the incredible growth of the Love Sligo Gift Card with €2.3 million in sales to date. This achievement is a testament to the people of Sligo. We are truly grateful to the Sligo community, the Sligo businesses and BID members, Mark Cunningham (Love Sligo programme coordinator), Miconex and the Sligo Leader Partnership for all helping build Love Sligo into the success it is today. Sligo town truly does love local.”
Corporate sales was a key driver of gift card sales in 2025, driven by the increase in the Small Benefit Exemption to €1500 in January 2025. 2025 Miconex research found that 84% of organisations said corporate social responsibility has become more important to their organisation over the past 12 months, and estimates that around 65% of its €17.4m in sales in 2025 were business orders, primarily organisations purchasing local gift cards for their employees.
Gift Card & Voucher Association data shows the popularity of multi-store gift cards like Town & City Gift Cards continues to increase, a rise that is partially attributed to a consumer hesitancy to commit to a single brand gift card. In addition to its 16 programmes in Ireland, Miconex operates 97 Town & City Gift Cards programmes in the UK and 72 Downtown Gift Cards initiatives in Canada and the USA.
Colin Munro, CEO of Miconex, said: “We’re incredibly proud of the performance of the Town & City Gift Cards network in Ireland in 2025. Many of our clients are ‘shop local’ pioneers, and have put their trust in us to evolve their paper vouchers into high tech physical and digital gift cards that meet the needs of today’s customers – or even to start a new gift card from scratch. Their vision is paying dividends as shop local sales soar across the country. Town & City Gift Cards offer choice, support for local and ease of use in one card – no other gift card can compete on these three factors combined. In 2026, we aim to bring the power of local to even more communities across Ireland.”