City Partner Offenburg has presented OFFENBURG+, a city gift-card and benefits system intended to replace its paper voucher with physical and digital formats. The association showed the programme on September 14 and said regular consumer sales were planned for November 16. [S01]

Merchant checkout integration was already under way at the time of the presentation. The number of sales outlets had not yet been finalized, so the September event marked the public unveiling and rollout preparation rather than unrestricted consumer availability.

More purchase and redemption routes

The planned system allows buyers to obtain a physical card, purchase online, print a voucher at home or send it digitally. Recipients can use the value at participating businesses in partial amounts, with the remaining balance retained for another purchase.

An app provides a digital option while the physical card remains available for gifting. The association says participating shops, restaurants and service businesses will be able to use their existing checkout systems without an additional device.

Merchant-specific offers and employer-funded benefits are also part of the design. City Partner says it will cover the initial setup cost for the first 20 employers adopting the employee-benefit option. It does not disclose the amount of that subsidy or the programme's transaction fees.

Local partners and funding

The technology is supplied and operated by trolleymaker and Simpli Citycard in Karlsruhe. The project was developed with the city and local marketing bodies, supported by five regional sponsors and funding from Baden-Württemberg's city-centre retail programme.

For participating businesses, the commercial purpose is to keep gifted and employer-funded spending within the local acceptance network while making purchase and redemption easier than with the former paper product. The announcement supplies no measured spending uplift or completed redemption data.

The association also raises the possibility of expanding the card into a wider city pass in future. That remains a prospective use, separate from the gift-card functions being prepared for the November sales launch.