ECO-VECINO, Local Commerce Engagement Platform, Cartagena (LIFE)
Cities Forum developed "ECO-VECINO", a web platform designed to stimulate local commerce in Cartagena by connecting registered shops with local residents through digital discount coupons.
Year: 2025 | Client: Ayuntamiento de Cartagena — LIFE "Bauhausing Europe" | Country: Spain (Cartagena, Murcia)
Cities Forum developed "ECO-VECINO", a web platform designed to stimulate local commerce in Cartagena by connecting registered shops with local residents through digital discount coupons. Delivered as part of the LIFE "Bauhausing Europe" project, an initiative rooted in the New European Bauhaus, the platform links sustainability, community and the vitality of the local high street, using a light, gamified mechanism to reward residents for supporting neighbourhood businesses.
Our approach
The system was built as a complete, functional web application with more than a dozen modules. Shops and users register and manage their profiles; participating businesses publish offers and issue coupons; each coupon carries a unique QR or alphanumeric code that is scanned and validated in-store; and unused coupons expire automatically after a month, keeping the scheme dynamic. Private dashboards give both shops and residents statistics on their activity, while the city council can layer additional incentives on top, for example offering the most active users benefits such as free event tickets, supported by an automated email and web notification system. Cities Forum built the platform to production standards, with user validation, protection against SQL injection and data encryption, delivered within a defined development window.
What we delivered
Beyond the technology, ECO-VECINO embodies a policy idea: that digital tools can knit together local economic vitality, citizen participation and sustainability objectives in a single, easy-to-use service. By rewarding residents for shopping locally and giving the council a channel to recognise and amplify that behaviour, the platform supports Cartagena's commerce while advancing the social and environmental aims of the LIFE and New European Bauhaus frameworks.
Impact
For Cities Forum, ECO-VECINO extends its portfolio of custom digital platforms for public administrations and demonstrates, once again, its capacity to move from concept to a deployed, maintainable product, this time putting local shops and neighbours, rather than data dashboards, at the centre of a European-funded urban initiative.
