Keeping informed and getting involved

Town centre newsletter

We send a business-to-business newsletter by email with news and events from around the town centre. This includes activities you may want to get involved in. We send the newsletter is issued every two months.

To sign up to receive the newsletter or ask to include content, please fill in our online form.

Town centre retail and hospitality forum

The forum meets four times a year. All town centre businesses welcome. Please fill in our online form if you'd like to attend. The forum also has a Facebook group.

Promoting your business

Our Barnsley town centre Facebook page promotes the town centre to shoppers and visitors. As well as liking and sharing the page with friends, family and customers, we can publish content on your behalf.

If you have any information you'd like including, please fill in our online form.

Barnsley Gift Card

The Barnsley Gift Card is a pre-paid Mastercard. It provides a simple way for local people to buy a gift card for friends and family. Owners of the card can spend them at a range of local businesses. This includes restaurants, cafes, shops, salons and more.

Benefits for your business

• It’s free. It doesn’t cost a business anything to be part of the programme. There are no extra set-up or on-going fees for businesses.
• It introduces new customers. People that receive the gift card tend to explore more. 15% of the redemptions are with customers visiting a business for the very first time.
• It brings extra spend. Customers that redeem cards spend on average 40% more than the value of the gift card. They tend to upgrade their experience, going for higher margin products.
• It’s easy to implement. As the programme users the Mastercard system, it’s easy for a business to get involved. No changes are needed to software or hardware in order to accept the gift card.
• It pays automatically. You'll receive the full value of the money received via your existing payment terminals.

Benefits for the customer

• It offers choice. People like the fact that the cards can be used on a huge range of products and services. They offer more choice than other gift cards or vouchers.
• There’s so much flexibility. You don’t have to use the full value of the card in one business. It means that people can enjoy spending at multiple businesses, over a period of 12 months.
• It supports the local economy. When you buy a Barnsley Gift Card for someone you know the money is going stay local.
• It works for everyone. We all have people that are difficult to buy presents for. The Barnsley Gift Card gives the choice back to the recipient, making sure they get something they really want.
• It’s secure. The Barnsley Gift Card is secured by Mastercard.

How to get set up

There's a three step set up process:

1. Complete the Barnsley Gift Card registration form.
2. Sign the merchant participation form.
3. Process a declined transaction through the card terminal. This can be done in two ways:
   • We can visit your business and process a registration transaction using a blank gift card.
   • We can register your business remotely by processing a 'card holder not present' transaction. This is done using the card details stated on the registration form.

For more details, please fill in our online form.

Mi Rewards - customer loyalty scheme

Mi Rewards encourages customers to spend money at local businesses. It rewards them with the chance to win fantastic monthly prizes.

It's free for customers to join and takes two minutes to set up an account. Once registered, there's no need for them to do anything else. They don't need to show a separate loyalty card when they shop. Every time they spend money at businesses who takes part, they'll be in with a chance of winning a local prize.

How it works for customers

• Link their existing Visa or Mastercard debit or credit cards to their Mi Rewards account. It works with any bank.
• Spend over £10 across businesses who take part. They'll earn an entry into the monthly prize draw.
• Win fantastic monthly prizes and enter bonus competitions.

Customers can register on the Mi Rewards website.

Benefits for your business

• Free promotion for your business. It's done via the Mi Rewards website, app and marketing activity.
• Increase loyalty by rewarding your customers every time they spend money with you.
• Understand more about your customers with our built-in dashboards and analytics.
• Simple registration - no staff training needed and no new hardware.
• Customers automatically receive tailored thank you messages from you every time they visit.
• It's completely free for you to join. There's no payment needed and no ongoing costs to take part.
• Join forces with other local businesses to promote the shop local message.

Register your business for Mi Rewards.

If your business is using a payment facilitator such as iZettle, SumUp, PayPal, Square or other, Mi Rewards are currently only able to reward Mastercard transactions at your business. Customers with a Visa card will not be able to earn points.

Fill in our online form for more details.

ShopAppy - Click and Collect Barnsley

Click and Collect Barnsley is an online ordering and booking platform for independent businesses. It's powered by ShopAppy. It's easy to use and payments are quick and secure.

ShopAppy encourages customers to shop local through:

• click and collect from your shop or stall
• click and collect from the collection hub in the indoor market
• delivery for a small fee

Who can sign up?

Businesses with a product or service to offer which is available in the Barnsley borough.

What can ShopAppy be used for?

Depending on your business, you can use ShopAppy for click and collect and delivery.

The town centre collection hub is inside Barnsley Market. Ambient, refrigerated and frozen secure storage is available. Customers can pick up orders for ambient goods from 8.30am to 7pm, Monday to Saturday. Lockers for refrigerated and frozen goods are self-serve and open until late.

Delivery is managed through City Grab which is an affiliate of City Taxis. Once an order is placed, ShopAppy will notify City Grab and arrange pickup and delivery. City Grab can transport chilled goods as well.

What if I don't sell products?

ShopAppy enables customers to book items, services, appointments, classes and more via the 'things to book' and 'what’s on' sections.

How much will it cost?

There are no subscription fees. ShopAppy is free to businesses in the Barnsley borough to use until September 2023.

When will I receive payments from ShopAppy?

The payment gateway holds on to funds in case of disputes/fraudulent cards normally for three to five days. After that it transfers to the ShopAppy account.

Once a week on Fridays, ShopAppy will generate statements for your orders. It'll email them to you and transfer payments to you, minus a 2% transaction fee from the payment gateway. ShopAppy doesn't take commission.

Is support available to help businesses to take quality photos?

Two units in the indoor market have been fitted out with cameras and photography equipment. Independent businesses in the Barnsley borough can use these.

There are no fees and no charges. Equipment must be used on site. You'll have to agree to some terms before you use it for the first time. Advice and support to use the kit is on-hand.

The digital studio is open from 8.30am to 4pm, Monday to Saturday. To find out more and to book, please visit the customer service desk in the indoor market or call us.

How do I sign up to ShopAppy?

Sign up to ShopAppy online and select to register a new account.

For more information you can contact us online or call (01226) 772239.

Yoello – hospitality ordering

Yoello is a web-based ordering platform. Through the system, businesses can offer contactless table service, click and collect and delivery services.

By scanning a QR code in a venue or typing in a URL, customers can access digital menus, make an order and pay. There's no need to download an app. This can be done on any smartphone, tablet or computer via any internet browser.

Who can use Yoello?

Hospitality such as restaurants, cafes, takeaways, pubs and street food vendors based in any of the Principal Towns can use Yoello. This includes Barnsley town centre, Cudworth, Goldthorpe, Hoyland, Penistone, Royston and Wombwell.

What can Yoello be used for?

Depending on your business, you can use Yoello for table service, click and collect and delivery. Delivery would need to be completed by you if you allow this option.

How much will it cost?

Businesses can sign up to Yoello for free for 12 months service. QR materials will be provided and are included in this. Businesses will pay 1.25% along with a 10p charge per transaction. The 10p can be absorbed by the business or passed onto the customer - this is up to you.

It's possible for businesses to upgrade their account with Yoello for £199 for a POS terminal to use for orders. This will also decrease payments to 1% and 10p per transaction. This can be done at any time through Yoello should you choose to do so.

Do I need the POS terminal?

No - there's no need for you to buy the POS terminal. You can access all orders through your merchant account. This can be done via your laptop, tablet or smartphone.

When will I receive payments from Yoello?

Stripe is the payment provider for Yoello. You'll be able to see a record of your pay-outs from the 'Payments' tab on your merchant dashboard. Payments are made two working days after the transaction has been placed.

How do I sign up to Yoello?

Contact us to sign up to use Yoello. You can fill in our online form or call (01226) 772239.

We'll complete an application form for you which will be passed to Yoello. They'll then contact you to begin setting up your page on the platform, including your menu items. They'll also set you up with the payment provider - Stripe.

You'll have access to your merchant page to review and process orders and manage your menu. You'll also have access to support from Yoello should you have any issues.