(1888PressRelease)
October 19, 2006 - Gift cards can be seen everywhere as the holiday season gets underway, and people are becoming more and more likely to purchase gift cards as each year passes. Retailers who desire to ensure the highest revenue from their gift card sales through this 2006 holiday season may want to boost their gift card program by adding additional incentives on their cards that not only increase the likelihood for the initial purchase of their gift card, but also utilize the card to ensure repeat business from the recipient of the gift card. This would be achieved by a retailer adding a discount program, loyalty program, and/or scratch off promotion to their gift card.
Consumers are purchasing gift cards in higher numbers each year. According to Stored Value Systems, 80% of US consumers said they would rather receive a gift card to their favorite retailer than any other kind of gift, and 76% of adults purchased gift cards during the 2005 holiday season. Gift givers in the U.S. spent an average nearly 20 percent more than they spent in the same period last year. If this gift-buying trend continues, total gift spending could result in a 12-percent rise over average spending in 2005. These results come from Unity Marketing's Gift Tracker quarterly purchasing study of gift givers.
In order to make the most of the holiday shopping season, businesses are now finding it a necessity to offer gift cards to the consumers. “The popularity of gift cards dramatically changes the retail landscape and extends holiday shopping well into January,” said Janet Hoffman, managing partner of Accenture’s Retail practice in North America. “Successful retailers will analyze and adapt their inventory, merchandising, promotions and pricing to accommodate the new behaviors and needs of gift card givers and recipients.”
"The popularity and convenience of gift cards are here to stay," says Karen Larsen, vice president of marketing and product marketing for ValueLink, a leading provider of information processing and related services. Larsen says that, among other positives, gift cards provide a wonderful branding opportunity for retailers.
With all of the benefits that gift cards offer both the retailer and the redeemer, there is still more that a successful gift card program could offer. When gift cards are purchased throughout the holiday season, businesses benefit from the new customers that come in to redeem their gift card, but what if that same card could also give that new customer an incentive to become a repeat client? Client Retention is one of the most important aspects of business and it is much more expensive to find new customers than to keep your existing ones coming back again and again.
Three ways that your business could take advantage this holiday season are by adding a discount program, loyalty program, or scratch off incentive onto your gift card. A discount program could be as simple as a set percentage off of all purchases over a certain amount. A business could offer one or multiple discounts depending on their business model. These discounts would be displayed on the card itself and redeemable when a consumer shows the card. A loyalty program would be a more advanced incentive program that offered rewards for purchases and would allow for tracking of personal information and purchases that offer tremendous marketing advantages.
Offering a scratch off promotion on a gift card could not only help in attracting repeat business (depending on what the reward offered is) but could also increase the impulse buy of the gift card itself. Consumers feel that they are giving two gifts in one – the gift card itself, and the opportunity to win something bonus. This idea is simply capitalizing on the impulse that drives so many to purchase scratch off lottery tickets during the holiday season.
Businesses can have these plastic gift cards created and printed in time for the holiday season by visiting Visual Products, Inc. at www.weprintplastic.com. Gift cards can be ordered in quantities as small as 250 cards to as large as 50,000 quickly and easily online.
www.weprintplastic.com offers rush printing to ensure that businesses get the most exposure of their gift cards throughout the shopping season.
For businesses that do not already have a gift card program in place, they can benefit from contacting http://gridmerchants.com to implement a gift card and loyalty program before the season is completely underway.
About Visual Products, Inc.
Visual Products, Inc. offers affordable small and large-run custom plastic card printing. Specializing in printing all types of plastic cards - consumers can find plastic business cards, hotel key access cards, ministry and prayer cards, gift and loyalty cards, fundraising cards, as well as VIP and membership cards. http://www.weprintplastic.com
Visual Products, Inc. is an American company dedicated to quality plastic card production and personal service for individuals and companies big and small. Their website, www.weprintplastic.com, was designed to be easy to navigate and convenient to use in efforts to meet and exceed the needs of their customers. Please contact info ( @ ) weprintplastic dot com or call toll free 1-866-539-7231 dot
About Grid Merchant Processing
Grid Merchant Processing is an industry leader in internet based (IP) credit card processing and electronic check processing (ACH) for internet, mail order/phone order, and brick and mortar retail businesses. http://gridmerchants.com
Grid Merchant Processing processes all electronic transaction types including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Debit, EBT, and private label cards. They offer Gift, Loyalty, Reward Card programs and electronic check services.
