ASHLAND — The Ashland Area Chamber of Commerce hopes to encourage shopping local through its new gift card program.
The Chamber’s Shop Local Ashland Community Gift Card Program will launch later this spring, featuring Ashland area businesses only.
“With the year we’ve had, we want to do anything we can do to encourage people to shop locally,” Chamber president Amy Daubenspeck said. “Our businesses, they’ve been really resilient. I’ve seen them switch gears. I’ve seen that shut down, so they could reopen with a new business model. All different kinds of creative thinking, but we want to help them where we can.”
Beginning May 1, the virtual gift cards will be available on the chamber’s website. The cards will only work at participating businesses, or those who opt in to the program.
As of earlier this week, more than 10 area businesses already had agreed to participate. Those businesses include: Hair Emotions Salon & Spa, Village Point Market, Village Point Parlor, Enjoy! Floral & Gift Boutique, Fig & Oak, The 121 Exchange, Ashley’s Candy & Nut Shoppe, LK Home Décor, Studio Rise, Smetz’s Tire & Service Center and Ashland Pet Store.
Vendors will receive 100 percent of every purchase. There is no cost for businesses to participate, though they must be Chamber members.
“It works like a MasterCard. The person buying it on our website will pay a small fee, but the person receiving the gift card and the vendor receive the full amount. If it’s a $25 gift card, they receive $25,” Director of Membership and Marketing Emily McKinley said.
The gift cards will be able to be emailed, texted or printed. It includes a list of participating businesses and a 16 digit code that can be entered and ran as a MasterCard.
In the past, the Chamber offered a program called Chamber Cash, but it wasn’t user-friendly for the participating vendors, McKinley explained.
After she spent summer 2020 researching alternatives, the local chamber set out to create the new gift card program with a company called Yiftee.
“Their tagline is, ‘Keeping local dollars local,'” McKinley said. “They are speaking our language.”
She looks forward to getting more local businesses onboard, so the gift cards can be used for shopping, restaurants and services in the area.
“Car maintenance facilities, chiropractic offices, anything. No matter what you’re going through life, we want people to be able to use it,” McKinley said.
