Gift cards are a great, cost-effective way to secure revenue in your business all year round. You can build a database of contacts, whilst also staying engaged with your audience.
Annually, different businesses have high and low peaks for their sales. If your business has seasonal revenue income, you know you need to be prepared and compensate for those months when sales aren’t going to be reaching their peak.
But how do companies and businesses prepare for unprecedented drops in business?
Due to the recent global situation, we can all understand how difficult it can be to keep our day to day lives running as normal. From companies being given grants in order to keep their business running, to our key workers who are working super hard to keep our families safe, healthy and also ensuring we have food stacked on the shelves in order to keep our economy going. However, what about the local and smaller businesses that we rely on, such as our local coffee shops, butchers and bakeries? For them, these are really tough times and their main priority is to keep their business afloat.
How Gift Cards and Gift card systems can benefit small businesses
Our gift cards and loyalty systems are suited to smaller businesses looking to ramp up revenue, but also for those who are looking to increase their brand awareness. Our customisable gift cards and gift card presenters can be tailored to your company’s house style to ensure fluent branding throughout your company; making your cards appealing to new customers and ensuring that when people are handed your gift cards, they know exactly what company it’s for. Having gift cards available to sell to your customers has so many factors in which you can benefit from, one of the main ones being that your gift cards can act as business cards!
Did you know? It’s been researched that 72% of customers spend more than the value of their gift card and are 2.5 times more likely to pay full price for products than those making cash purchases.
I know for one that I am guilty of the above… having a gift card for a certain shop or store gives me more of an incentive to go and spend my money there. With the above figures, customers are less likely to shop by prices or look out for bargains and sales. You don’t have to be experienced in a business to know that when customers are buying your products at full price, your profits are increasing and revenue is going up too!
Whilst in these times attracting new business might be hard, have you thought about giving your existing customers a reason to return when our lives do go back to normal? There’s nothing better than having something to look forward to!
When you shop for people, you shop for what you know they like, but also for what you think might interest them. Your customers could be buying your gift cards for their families and friends who may not have originally thought of doing so. From this act, your customers are unknowingly supporting you by spreading the word positively about your business, this means your customers could potentially be doing some of your marketing work for you!
Redeemable gift cards are a great way of improving your cash flow and securing your business sales; selling gift cards and vouchers to your customers allows you to have a safety net and keep on top of sales when normal business is running slow. When customers purchase your gift cards, you benefit hugely as you receive the whole sum of the money upfront. This allows you to cover your important business-related expenses, such as monthly invoices, investments and payroll.
These low-cost gift cards have the ongoing potential for your company as you can earn interest on the cards from the time of purchase to the time of use; plus don’t forget extra profits that can be made through the further potential for future sales and also see a decrease in customers returning products too.
Gift cards are a fantastic present, but I think we can all put our hands up and say we’ve forgotten to use or redeem gift cards that have been gifted to us on a birthday or at Christmas. Statistics tell us that 7-12% of gift card sales are never redeemed, but what happens to the money left on the cards? Once the cards have expired, if there is still money outstanding on them, then the money floats its way into your books and you’d be surprised the amount of money left un-redeemed on gift cards. To portray this further, your gift card scheme could potentially pay for itself within 2 years!
Gift card loyalty systems are super easy to have set up and the set-up doesn’t cost a lot either. Our gift cards are also reusable; meaning you can keep topping up your cards after each use – so there’s no more need for printing one-time use vouchers! As well as this, you also don’t have to think about admin costs as many of the systems have a built-in marketing feature to help assist you to stay engaged with your customers, such as a real-time module that gives financial accounting through summaries and transaction reports.
What benefits are there for your customers?
Gift cards are a great gift pleaser as they are easy to get a hold and also a quick and simple way of making a purchase. Giving someone a gift card as a present offers them flexibility, meaning that they have their own choice of what they would like to buy from the store; this makes these cards a perfect gift for when you’re uncertain on what to buy a family member or friend on a special occasion. Our gift cards will fit perfectly in your customer’s wallet or purse as they are the same size as your standard credit card (CR80), as well as being as durable and lightweight too.
When it comes to buying presents for your friends and families, you want to be sure that what you decide to gift them, is worth the money and that’s it’s something they are going to enjoy. When deciding on what present to buy, people can be reluctant to just give the person cash as it brings uncertainty of what the money will be spent on and it if the money was worth it. Gift cards act as a value token; as the buying customer, you are given more security that your money is being used wisely and will be spent on something your friend or family appreciate.
Another great factor about gift cards is that because they are small and lightweight, they can easily be delivered to your customers via a postal service, meaning that even in situations like today where most of our non-essential physical shops are closed due to the pandemic, you can secure your income through selling gift cards to your customers and offering delivery to their door!
We understand that with our cards being lightweight and small, they are also open to being misplaced… whether these are misplaced in public, dropped out of a pocket, wallet or purse or even lost in the post, your cards will be fully insured meaning that they can be replaced if need be.
To Summarise…
Customers love gift cards because they are original, convenient to carry around with you and have the same impact as cash. Most importantly, gift cards can be personalised to fit your company’s branding, or alternatively, whatever is appealing to your customers. Gift cards are a great opportunity for those in retail as they have great potential to create stronger relationships with your customers, raise your brand awareness, boost your business’s profits and also bring in new customers.
So, if you’re looking for a way to secure sales within your business but not sure how… gift cards and loyalty systems are a brilliant route to go down. Would you like to find out more information on our gift cards & loyalty system plans?
If you would like to find out more or if you have any questions from the blog then please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us as our members of staff are always more than happy to help and answer any of your questions.
