‘Shop Local’ sentiment continues to rise nationally

LOCAL shopping is being supported by Chambers Ireland who announced a new partnership with Miconex, the founders of the Town & City Gift Cards concept that is active in 16 towns, cities, and regions across Ireland.

The Miconex and Chambers Ireland partnership comes as ‘shop local’ sentiment continues to rise in prominence in the country. Over €17.4m of sales were achieved across the Town & City Gift Cards Irish network in 2025, as both consumer and corporate audiences move to local gift cards for gifts and rewards.

Miconex introduced four new Town & City Gift Card initiatives in Ireland in 2025 as Irish towns and cities increasingly look for modern alternatives to high administration, high risk paper gift vouchers.

Mastercard backed, the multi-store gift cards can be spent with big brands and independent businesses, in person, driving footfall and diverting spend back to local high streets.

Ian Talbot, Chief Executive at Chambers Ireland, said: “By partnering with Miconex and the Town & City Gift Cards initiative to members, Chambers Ireland is championing local shopping across Ireland, supporting its members to capitalise on the increased demand for gift cards and convert ‘shop local’ sentiment across consumer and corporate audiences into increased local spend with their own locally branded programme.”

Miconex is a leading provider of shop local initiatives globally, with 200 programmes around the world and €79m in local spend delivered.

Colin Munro, CEO of Miconex said: “In our 2025 research, 98% of people said support for local was important and 82% said supporting local has become more important to them over the past 12 months. The Town & City Gift Cards concept is a tried and tested, rapidly expanding network that enables places to introduce their own branded gift card, or evolve their paper programme to a high-tech physical and digital gift card.”