Gift & Loyalty Card Marketing

1. Helps you increase your customer base.

2. Helps you retain your existing and additional customer base.

3. Helps you increase your average sale amount (ticket price).

4. Helps you keep sales in the store as they can be used instead of refunds.

5. Helps you offer "uplift" meaning dollars spent above the value of the card.

6. Gift cards are more secure than "certificates" - less cases of counterfeit.

7. Gift and loyalty cards are walking advertisements - walking billboards.

8. Gift and loyalty cards are re-chargeable.

9. Gift cards make purchases very easy for your customers.

10. Gift and loyalty cards give a competitive edge over you competition.

11. Gift cards are one of the most popular gifts in North America.

Gift Cards are effective at producing profits due to the psychology behind them.

One the most basic psychological assets behind gift cards is that people see the value on the card as "found money" or "free money". The subconscious mind sees these cards the same way we have already view credit cards, only this internal drive of "free money" with a gift card is multiplied by 100 over a credit card.

As a result, consumers spend more.

A Customer with a $40 restaurant card who normally would only spend $0 on their dinner, will now usually pamper themselves and spend $80 getting the a 4 course meal with the most expensive item on the menu.

Another consumer in a retail clothing store with $25 left on their card will reward them self with on an item that is $25 more than they would otherwise be willing to spend.

A person who has a $5 Subway gift card is more likely to visit Subway for their lunch instead of another luncheon establishment. What's more, they will probably use the gift card to buy an extra special to snack on later at work.

You get the point.

Gift cards increase profits!

As cards become more promoted, it is important for businesses to be aware of new legislation that may affect your gift or loyalty program.

For example, many states and provinces have recently passed legislation that prohibits expiry dates or fees on gift cards. Under the new legislation expiry dates can only be used on a gift card if the card is given away during a promotion for a specific good or service.

When implementing your program, make sure that you comply with existing or emerging legislation.

The next big question governments will have to address is how to handle gift cards that are never redeemed due to the business going out of business.

Check out this interesting article title: "U.S. Consumers May Be Holding $75 Million Worth Of Worthless Gift Cards"