Town centre gift card sees huge boost for businesses in 2025
Shoppers in Bury St Edmunds have once again given an overwhelming vote of approval to the Our Bury St Edmunds BID-supported Town Centre Gift Card, which saw sales almost double during 2025. During the year almost £50,000 was spent purchasing cards for gifts – and additionally the amount spent by those using their gift cards in local businesses was up by around 20% on the previous year.
November and December saw the highest amount spent on purchasing the cards – which is now accepted by 85 town centre businesses. More than £30,000 – a 50% increase on 2024 – was spent buying Bury St Edmunds Gift Cards in the run up to Christmas, which, it’s anticipated, will give a boost to the local economy when recipients start spending it in early 2026.
The upsurge in gift card purchases has come as no surprise to Our Bury St Edmunds BID’s Business Support Manager Mike Kirkham. He said: “The increasing popularity, both among purchasers and businesses that accept it, is down to a number of reasons. Customers love the variety of retail, food and drink, leisure and wellbeing options that it gives – including both independents and high street names. We know that the desire to ‘Shop Local’ is important to many in Bury St Edmunds and this is a great way to do so, but best of all it’s really easy to purchase or use and backed by well-known and trusted brands as you would expect from Our Bury St Edmunds.
“In addition, the Bury St Edmunds Gift Card is part of the multi-award winning Town & City Gift Cards initiative powered by Miconex. Operating on the Mastercard network and managed securely through local stockists, the card provides customers with a safe, reliable way to support our businesses, whether purchasing online or in-person.”
As well as the increase in sales of the card ahead of Christmas, there was also a 40% increase in spending on the card in the same two months compared to last year with £10,000 ringing through town centre tills.
Mike Kikham added: “This is the first full year that we have also offered the option of a digital card which accounted for just over 10 per cent of the purchases – and I expect that to grow. However, the most popular way to gift the card was by picking it up at one of the nine stockists in the town centre and loading the amount to give straight onto it.”
Bulk purchases of the gift card can also be made by businesses looking to reward staff or to tie in with their own projects and initiatives. Sales of the card in this way have also increased by 50% in the last year. A full list of where to spend the card or how to purchase it can be found at www.ourburystedmunds.com.
