Tech firms round up ‘shop local’ gifts for the end of term

The Scottish fintechs are offering fee-free group collecting for 90+ Town & City Gift Card programs across the UK. The gift cards power local economies by encouraging ‘shop local’

Scottish fintechs Miconex and GiftRound have unveiled new technology to simplify group collecting for local gift cards in time for end of term teacher gifts.

From today, people will be able to set up a group collection for one of over 90+ Town & City Gift Card programmes in the UK directly from their chosen local gift card page, and redeem as a digital Town & City Gift Card, fee-free.

Once the GiftRound collection closes, the digital Town & City Gift Card can be sent directly to the organiser with a printable gift card, or directly to the recipient with a link to messages from the contributors. Collections can also be split across multiple gifts/recipients.

Delivered by Miconex, Town & City Gift Cards can be spent with businesses in the town or city they are branded to, including big brands like M&S, Primark, Lush, Tesco, Next, Boots and Sainsbury’s and an array of independent shops, restaurants, attractions, salons, hotels and services.

Miconex announced over £24m in local gift card sales across its network in 2025, a 60% increase on 2024 as shoppers make the move to local gift cards to show support for local businesses.

The new technology from Miconex and GiftRound arrives just in time for the end of term teacher gifting season. With an estimated 4.5m children in state funded primary schools in the UK, and families spending an average of £9.06 on teacher gifts, over £4m is spent on teacher gifts at the end of term, and again at Christmas, if just 10% of families buy a gift for a teacher.

Group collecting platform GiftRound reports that the average contribution to a teacher gift on its platform is £10, with an average overall teacher collection value of £145. The tech firm was founded in 2018, giving people an easy, fee-free way to collect money for various occasions including leaving gifts, new babies, weddings and teacher gifts.

Over 175,000 collections have been created to date through GiftRound with over £9 million in gift cards/vouchers ordered through the platform.

Craig Forsythe, CEO & founder at GiftRound, said:

“Going live with Town & City Gift Cards across 90+ UK towns and cities is exciting. We’re making it easy to group collect for all kinds of occasions, and redeem as a local gift card where the beneficiaries are the local businesses who power our economy. Gifts for teachers is one of our most popular collections and it makes huge sense. Instead of teachers receiving multiple mugs or gift sets, parents can each put a small amount into a collection and the teacher receives the collection as a gift card to buy something they’d really like.”

David O’Neil, chief customer and growth officer at Miconex, said:

“Shop local sentiment in the UK continues to build with over 98% of people keen to support local, Town & City Gift Cards with their unbeatable local choice and unrivalled support for local make it easy for people to show support for the place they live. It’s fantastic to see this new technology go live in time for the end of term – helping people easily collect money as a group for a teacher’s gift – and gift a teacher the ultimate ‘shop local’ gift card.”