Pre-Christmas sales in Clare received a €125k boost as a result of the Clare Gift Card.

By Tadhg Holland

Launched in October by Ennis Chamber of Commerce, the Clare Gift Card ran in partnership with One4All as a replacement for the Ennis Gold Gift Card and allowed the vouchers to be sold online during COVID-19 restrictions.

With a renewed emphasis on shopping local this year, the goodwill was seen when it came to the demand for the Clare Gift Card. “We were blown way by how just the support was phenomenal for local businesses this Christmas,” CEO of Ennis Chamber Margaret O’Brien told The Clare Echo.

“Whether they were members of this scheme or not we are were hearing great things back from our own membership about just how great the locals were in supporting them and I think we maybe benefited from that as well. It was a very competitive year for vouchers because there were a lot of newly launched national vouchers on the market, so we were kind of up against it. We didn’t have much time for the sell in, it was launched just a month before Christmas and we were delighted it garnered that many sales in what was quite a short time frame,” Margaret added.

The Clare Gift Card can be spent in 70 businesses across the county of Clare and the large volume of sales it earned will benefit the local economy. “If you were to go in and buy a voucher from a particular business when you go to spend it six months later or after lockdown that money is already in their business it’s not new money coming in the door and at least with this gift card this is extra money for whoever receives or redeems that card, it’s new money coming into their business which will hopefully give a great boost by the time this lockdown lifts that there’s that much money circulating out there which can be spent hopefully quickly,” explained O’Brien.

The voucher is still for sale and can be found at post offices or online at ennischamber.ie.