Gift cards are a great addition to your product offering at any time, and since the pandemic, they've only been increasing in popularity.
During holidays like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Christmas as well as during back-to-school and cyber week shopping periods, they become even more valuable for your business. Here’s why:
Several hundred gift cards can fit into small, discrete boxes near your cash register, so you won’t need to make space for hundreds of new products on your shelves or worry about your supplier running out of your best products in the middle of a peak shopping season or period.
Swipe or scan several gift cards in seconds, slip them into a small envelope, and voilà! You’re done. You’ll be able to sell ten fifty-dollar gift cards in a fraction of the time that it would take you to scan and carefully wrap a shopping cart full of five-dollar gifts.
Whether your customers are shopping for a last-minute gift, need a bunch of stocking stuffers or simply don’t know what to get for the person who has everything, they’ll be relieved to know that you sell gift cards, the most versatile of all gifts. Place them near your cash register and watch them sell like hot cakes.
Forget the long, post-holiday lineups of customers who want to swap the gifts that they received from well-meaning friends and family members. Say goodbye to the headaches caused by customers having forgotten to bring a receipt, removed the tags or opened the original packaging. Gift card sales are always final.
When a customer asks for a refund after your usual return period, simply add the amount onto a gift card. That way, you’ll keep your customers happy all while making sure that the money stays within your business.
People trust recommendations from their entourage, so when someone who had never heard of your brand before receives a gift card with your logo on it, he or she won’t hesitate to visit your business for the first time. Plus your card will serve as a constant visual reminder of your brand in hundreds of consumers’ wallets — all that without you having so much as looked at an advertising platform.
Small businesses are different from large companies in one major way: they have fewer resources to accomplish the same job, and — as if that wasn’t enough — they don’t have a bulk price advantage. But being “too small” is no excuse to not meet consumer demand. Small businesses should therefore design a product offering that can compete with that of large businesses, many of which offer gift cards. When consumers are looking for a quick and easy gift (especially over the holidays), whoever sells gift cards will have the advantage (and a quicker turnaround at the cash register!)
If you already sell gift certificates, you might be wondering why you would replace them with gift cards. That’s easy. First, consumers prefer giving and receiving gift cards, as gift certificates are outdated, fragile and bulky and don’t have much aesthetic appeal. Second, employees prefer selling gift cards, which they can swipe like a credit or debit card, since since gift certificate printing, logging and signing is time consuming. Third, you can swipe gift cards directly from your payment terminal, so you can easily keep track of how many are in circulation at all times. Fourth, gift cards are less prone to fraud, since anyone with a good printer can easily forge a paper gift certificate.
Before any major holiday, sales will peak from customers looking to buy the perfect gift; but what happens after a holiday, when consumers’ credit cards are full and they hold off on making any purchases? People who received a gift card will visit your business to spend it, resulting in foot traffic which you wouldn’t otherwise have experienced. For instance, someone who receives a gift card in December might come in to spend it in January, when sales are slow. And since 55% of people who receive a gift card spend more than the amount on their card, you’ll receive a welcome revenue boost.
Ready to get your gift card program up and running before the holiday season? Check out our in-depth guide on How to Set Up a Gift Card Program for Small Businesses.
The sooner you add gift card software to your payment system, the sooner you can start reaping the benefits of gift cards not only during major holidays, but also year-round.