The gift card industry has seen significant changes over recent years as our towns and cities met with challenges ranging from online purchasing to the pandemic, and the more recent cost of living crisis. Within this, we’ve seen changes in gift card demand, including the rise of the multi-store gift card, increased popularity of digital gift cards and the emergence of localism. And we’ve also seen the introduction of the trailblazing Scotland Loves Local Gift Card, a local gift card for every local authority in Scotland, led by Scotland’s Towns Partnership and Miconex.

In this White Paper, we take an in-depth look at the gift card industry in Scotland and the wider UK, utilising research data from the Incentive Research Foundation, the GCVA, academic sources, plus research undertaken by Miconex with over 1500 employees, consumers and organisations in 2022. We will also consider how places across Scotland have utilised the Scotland Loves Local Gift Card concept in a variety of use cases to meet the macro environment challenges currently faced. And we look towards the future, and how the gift card industry can continue to evolve to solve some of society’s most pressing concerns.