How to Make the Most of Gift Cards for Your Small Business

Consumers spend millions of dollars on gift cards every year, especially during the holiday seasons. Offering gift cards can be a very lucrative strategy for increasing your business profits. Whether an egift card or a plastic gift card, every business needs to have some kind of gift card program.

Here are some of the ways your business can benefit from gift cards:

Attracting new customers – Regular customers to your store are likely to give gift cards to their families and friends. This will mean more new customers since the recipients will have to visit your store to redeem their gift cards.
Increased sales – People who shop using gift cards are likely to spend more than those who are paying cash.
Return purchase – Customers will be required to visit your store to activate their gift card. In addition, they are more likely to visit your site regularly to check their balance or see what offers are available. This is likely to result in repeat purchases, thus boosting your profits.
Unredeemed gift card revenue – At times, customers might forget to redeem their gift cards. When gift cards expire, if your cards expire, the money remains in your business.

Here are some of the ways you can make the most of gift card programs:

Make it accessible

You need to make it as easy as possible for people to find your gift cards. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, place your gift cards on the counter. Make sure your egift cards appear prominently on your website. In addition, have a link to your gift cards in your social media profiles as well as your email newsletters. You could even create gift card apps for mobile users. By increasing awareness about your gift cards, you are likely to make even more sales.

Build relationships

Running egift programs gives you the opportunity of collecting the contact details of your customers. You can then use these contacts to create a mailing list and send regular sale notices and special offers. Keeping in touch with your customers via email newsletters allows you to build strong relationships.

Give gift cards rather than cash

When a customer returns an item for whatever reason, give them a gift card instead of cash. Since the customer has to find another product to buy, the money will remain in your store. Make sure this return policy is outlined clearly on your website to avoid disputes.

Give donations in the form of gift cards

When it comes to giving donations to charitable organizations, it would be advisable to offer gift cards rather than actual products. This means that the beneficiary will have to visit your store to redeem their gift card. This could result in them becoming a regular shopper.

Offer your employees gift cards

Instead of rewarding your best-performing employees with things such as mugs and t-shirts, you could give them gift cards instead. This way, they get a chance to try out the services you are offering or goods you are selling. This could not only enhance their loyalty, but will also ensure that any money spent remains in your business.

Charles Mburugu is a professional blogger who writes for TechBlogKe. You can follow him on Twitter @techblogke

Charles Mburugu

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Cody Charles Deegan says:

9 years ago at 12:28 AM

Gift cards are promotional tools that could increase not only profit but customer engagement. There is always a positive ring to it when people hear gift cards, gift certificates, or freebies because it always mean a reward that could stir the formation of loyalty and preference.