Gloucester Gift Card

There are now over 60 fantastic businesses that accept the Gloucester Gift Card!

The gift card acts as a local currency, keeping spend with in Gloucester and promoting the different retail, hospitality and leisure businesses that accept it as a form of payment.

Businesses in Gloucester are being encouraged to sign up to receive the Gloucester Gift Card as an additional payment method.

To sign up please email

If you’re a national chain – have a look where else your brand accepts a place-based gift card https://airtable.com/shrsCWIk0Oo1RhhQO/tblb4JzFCmWZ8EU1B

The Gloucester Gift Card launched in November 2019 as a multi-venue gift card that can be spent with all types of businesses in Gloucester, such as retail, leisure and hospitality, and is designed to lock in spend to Gloucester and encourage consumers to shop locally.

Cards can be purchased online for £5-£500 and redeemed in a variety of places in Gloucester, including the Museum of Gloucester, Café René and VRXPerience. Each Gloucester Gift Card is a prepaid Mastercard, offering a secure way to gift.

All businesses in Gloucester that have a card reader are able to be a part of the scheme for free, and there are no additional costs or training needs for merchants. The scheme is an initiative from Gloucester Business Improvement District with technology provided by fintech Miconex through its Town and City Gift Cards programme.

The Town and City Gift Cards programme has seen rapid expansion in 2020 with active programmes in over 50 places in the UK and Ireland. There has been increased interest in local shopping in 2020 with Research from Visa and the Centre for Economics and Business Research suggesting that 81% of people are supporting local businesses more than before the pandemic began.

BID Manager Emily Gibbon from Gloucester BID said being a part of the Gloucester Gift Card is an opportunity for businesses to add an additional revenue stream:

“When you receive a Gloucester Gift Card, you’ll go online and see where it can be redeemed and research has shown you’ll be more experimental too. By being a part of the Gloucester Gift Card, businesses gain a new revenue stream and new customers too. There are no downsides to being a part of the programme.”

One of the businesses registered to receive the Gloucester Gift Card as payment is VRXPerience, Founder Marc Edden said the Gloucester Gift Card is a way to enjoy a whole day out in Gloucester:

“We set up the business in November 2019, less than 4 months later covid-19 hit. We have virtual reality headsets, escape rooms and racing.  I found out about the Gloucester Gift Card on Facebook and signed up. I need to take every opportunity I can to advertise VRXPerience to new customers and reach people that we wouldn’t normally reach. Being a part of the Gloucester Gift Card exposes us to a new market outside of our regular customers.

“In the same way, I hope that being a part of the programme will help our customers to discover new businesses too. With the Gloucester Gift Card, you can enjoy a whole day out, do some shopping in Gloucester, have something to eat, have a go at VR and much more. I set up the business myself from scratch, it has been a real labour of love.”

Colin Munro is the managing director of Miconex and said being a part of the Gloucester Gift Card is a positive move for businesses:

“The average people spend on a Town and City Gift Card is £34.56 and when people receive a Gloucester Gift Card they’ll spend 65% more on top of this. The more businesses that are part of the Gloucester Gift Card, the more money is locked into Gloucester to support local jobs and local economic recovery.”