This Christmas Horsham District Council is encouraging residents to Buy Local, Gift Happy. Its campaign seeks to support local businesses during the run up to Christmas by encouraging residents to purchase a proportion of their gifts locally.
This year, organisers of events and initiatives in Horsham District who boost local purchasing opportunities have been invited to adopt the campaign’s branding in return for financial support towards their own marketing costs.
Keep an eye out for a series of promotions featuring participating events in the lead up to Christmas, with ideas on local festive activities you can get involved with.
The campaign aims to build awareness of the value of buying goods and services from locally based businesses to boost the overall local economy.
A recent survey on local shopping habits run by Visit Horsham, Horsham Business Initiative and Horsham District Council indicated that 21% of the Horsham-based respondents will be conducting most of their Christmas gift shopping spend locally this year, with nearly 50% of respondents saying that they will be carrying out most of their Christmas gift shopping in November.
Commenting on the launch of the campaign, Cllr Jonathan Chowen, Leader of Horsham District Council and Cabinet Member for the Local Economy said:
I would like to thank the local community partners, market operators and other event organisers who are helping us to spread this important message to buy local and support our businesses in these challenging times. It is great to hear so many people are already committed to buying their gifts locally.
We have such a wonderful range of businesses in Horsham District to celebrate, offering a wide variety of unique gifts and experiences for Christmas. Let’s keep supporting them and our local economy!
Through the Buy Local, Gift Happy campaign, residents are being reminded of all that Horsham District businesses have to offer in terms of unique gifts and experiences, both online and offline. This includes our local markets, some of whom are introducing additional market dates for the festive season. What’s more, when shopping offline you will be able to take advantage of the late-night shopping opportunities for the added time to choose that extra special gift.
With nearly 60% of local people conducting most of their Christmas gift shopping online this year, there are still opportunities to buy local. For example, the Virtual Horsham shopping tool allows you to order products from local stores to click and collect or to be delivered. The portal makes it easy for you to continue to purchase from any local independent businesses that are trading online.
If you’re getting involved in the Buy Local, Gift Happy campaign please let us know by using the hashtag #buylocalgifthappy.
You can find out more about the benefits of ‘buying local’ and watch our Buy Local video.