localrewards.ie is Guaranteed Irish

The purpose of localrewards.ie is to keep jobs in local communities. We do this by providing a way for the forward-thinking independent businesses that form the backbone of communities to give something back to their customers. And we are now Guaranteed Irish.

The Guaranteed Irish symbol identifies products and services that are sourced and based in Ireland and support Irish jobs. This obviously matches our own mission.

myrewardcard.ie qualifies for this mark for three reasons;

We are based in Cork.

We source all material such as our own promotional material and the cards we provide to you in Ireland as well.

We have developed all our own software and systems. We do not resell or rebrand generic software. This not only gives us our own asset in the Intellectual Property but also allows us to respond to our customers in the Irish market by ensuring it responds to our customers feedback instead of forcing our customers into adapting to the software. In effect we are doing the same thing that our clients are - thinking ahead and doing our best to offer them a reason to do business with us.

The Importance of Shopping Locally
The majority of jobs in Ireland are provided by small local businesses. While the large multinationals are important it is the small business that keeps a community thriving. Without them towns die. And it doesn't take much for this to happen; if residents spend less it will inevitably lead to the closing of one shop. This in turn will give people one less reason to visit the town and more businesses close. The increasing number of empty premises make it unpleasant to visit the town and gradually the other businesses suffer as well. It's an incremental process that starts with small actions and can be reversed with equally small steps.

The Effect of localrewards.ie
localrewards.ie is one of the main steps a town can take to help ensure that it remains viable. We have seen that residents are aware of the importance of shopping locally and want to do so when they can. But of course in the climate we now have every cent is iomportant and often people feel they must go to the large chains or cities to get the value they are lookign for. One of the reasons that drives the choices - one shown again and again in the research we have seen - is the availability of offers through loyalty cards that the large chains have invested in.

The myrewardcard.ie platform which powers localrewards.ie allows small businesses to introduce their own advanced loyalty cards. The businesses that use the platform are small independent businesses who see that their success is ultimately in their own hands and nobody else. By offering their customers a points based rewards scheme they not only encourage repeat visits but create goodwill.

localrewards.ie goes a step farther and uses this platform to explicitly encourage shopping in the community. We do this by providing one town-specific card that can be used in different businesses.Each business runs their own program where the points they issue are valid for rewards only in their own premises - so they decide what points are worth and when they are awarded. The advantage of this system over and above the specifics of rewarding customers in the way they say they want is that it explicitly gets people thinking of shopping locally and makes it easy for them to access multiple small programs with the one card.

localrewards.ie is now in two towns with more coming. In most cases we are seeing the interest driven by individual businesses who see that their success is ultimately in their own hands and nobody else. They sign up individually because they know the value of a rewardcard program to their customers and that even if no other business in the town participates then their customers benefit anyway. What we have seen is that there are plenty of such forward-thinking businesses in every town and these are the successful innovative businesses who are won't rely on others to make decisions for them. These are the businesses that will come through the recession.

Reward Cards, Guaranteed Irish and Surviving the Recession
The response to our service from businesses and customers, and the enquiries we have had from towns has been extremely positive. In most cases we are seeing the interest driven by individual businesses who see that their success is ultimately in their own hands and nobody else. They sign up individually because they know the value of a rewardcard program to their customers and that even if no other business in the town participates then their customers benefit anyway. What we have seen is that there are plenty of such forward-thinking businesses in every town and these are the successful innovative businesses who are won't rely on others to make decisions for them. These are the businesses that will come through the recession.

But the interest is not limited to the businesses. If anything it is even more positive amongst the residents of the towns. Their interest shows that they are aware of the importance of supporting local jobs in small businesses. They want to do so if they can see a reason to. Guaranteed Irish and localrewards.ie give them that reason.