Due to the recent global pandemic, many companies have closed down or scaled back their business operations. Footfall and consumer spending have also been affected. This has had a huge impact on the economy, with all sizes of organisations struggling.
Gift cards have been popular among consumers because they are one of the few ways to give a gift that is both personal and will be appreciated. According to the latest analysis by the GCVA and KPMG UK, digital and eVoucher sales have increased by 49.7% on a yearly basis.
Especially over the last two years, gift cards have grown to be more and more popular. This is because people can use them for various purposes, like at brick-and-mortar stores or for online businesses. (In the case of national lockdowns)!
The next decision to make along this process is whether you want to set up physical gift cards, virtual e-gift cards or even both! There are pros and cons to each.
You can choose multiple variations of gift cards to sell. The first type is selling a traditional physical gift card. This is a card that the customer can hold in their hand and use at a later time. Physical gift cards are appreciated by those who like to give and receive a physical gift that can be opened.
Many gift experience cards can be packaged into a wallet or a presentation box for the extra wow factor.
Physical gift cards are also useful for promotional giveaways.
It's important to remember that with promotional give-aways the terms and conditions of the gift card are included. Things such as expiry date, how-to book, and how it can be redeemed should be listed.
Even with online purchasing, physical gift cards can be delivered to your customers.
For many companies, the e-gift card is the preferred option. These work by sending an email with a digital e-card.
Digital e-cards can also be sent directly to customers, bypassing the wait for postal services. They are often easier for the customer to use as the gift card can be accessed immediately from their smartphone. (Providing there's access to their email).
Likewise, who says you should opt for one over the other? Many companies offer both physical and digital gift cards for their business. - Keeping flexible options for their customers.
Are you looking to supply your customer with a wider range of options? Or are you trying to increase foot traffic and sales?
Introducing a gift card programme for your business is a great way to drastically increase revenue. Below we go over the benefits of using a gift card system to generate and sell your gift card.
Gift card systems organise and enable the processing of gift card sales through your business.
Using a competent gift card system is necessary to run a seamless business where gift cards can be marketed, sold and redeemed with ease.
Begin with a simple white label gift card system. With our Enjovia gift card system, you can display a wide variety of gift cards and gift experiences with domain masking. The design of your gift card store can be tailored to match your website branding so it looks a part of your website.
This is the part of the gift card system which the customer doesn’t see.
The admin part of the gift card software enables you to take control. Everything from creating the gift card, choosing the branding and design, redemption and analytics can be found here. Let’s talk about the importance of some:
It’s important that your gift card system can allow you to promote gift cards that can be altered to meet your branding and design. You’ll want the flexibility to change font, colour, text and images.
You’ll also want a simple back of house system to be able to identify and redeem the gift cards. This is important as you want fast service at the checkout, while you want to ensure the gift card isn’t a copy.
For the ultimate increase in gift card sales, you should consider different promotional gift card campaigns. This is supported by having the flexibility to add promotional codes and group discount bulking for your gift card store.
- An especially important tool for large consumer events such as Black Friday weekend!
Likewise, you want to be able to look back on previous campaigns and make smart decisions on future gift card marketing campaigns. How successful have previous campaigns been? How did this campaign compare to other campaigns?
It is also important that you have different levels of user access. Should your front desk staff have access to the back of house campaigns and promotions? Ideally, you want them only involved with the basic identifying and redeeming of each gift card.
How you decide to market your gift cards is going to really make the biggest difference between casual gift card sales and it becoming a major part of your revenue stream.
Some ideas include:
It would be wise to set aside a small budget each quarter to go towards gift card marketing.
To learn more about how to market your gift cards properly see our post here: How to make money selling gift cards.
So, you've decided to start a gift card program for your business - congratulations! Here are some things you need to do in order to get started:
With physical gift cards, you’ll need a fulfilment service. You can either print in-house or hand out the customers to come and collect. Or otherwise, arrange for your gift card fulfilment from online orders to be sent out on your behalf.
Choosing a nice quality card design, wallet and envelope should all be important aspects to consider for the physical gift card.
You’ll also need a stock of your gift cards, wallets and envelopes.
With digital gift cards, you need not worry about selecting a stationary or fulfilment service. All you’ll need is your gift card store which enables the receipt of gift cards to be delivered directly to the customers' email.
Make sure your policies follow local and federal laws. You can find out more about federal laws for the US gift card market here: Gift Card Expiration Date Federal Law. And for the UK gift card law here: Expiry Date on Gift Vouchers Law.
