2 Important Ways That Gift Cards Benefit Your Business

Everyone loves getting gifts, right? How could we not? But buying gifts for family members, friends and other loved ones isn’t always the easiest thing to do. That’s why gift cards make the perfect gifts. Many people have offered the viewpoint that gift cards are “impersonal”. But how could they be when they literally provide recipients with EXACTLY what they want? No need to worry about the right size or colour with a gift card.

As a business owner, offering your customers the ability to purchase gift cards can work wonders for growing your business. You make the shopping experience so much easier for those looking to buy gifts. And although the holiday season is obviously the time of year when you’ll sell the most gift cards, there is never a time of year when people aren’t shopping for gifts. As you know, birthdays, anniversaries and other celebrations happen all year round.

On GiftCards.com, Dan Wilkerson writes of a very important topic where gift cards are concerned. And that’s detailing the ways in which business owners make money when gift cards are sold. He notes that there are various ways that merchants can make money selling gift cards, but focuses on some of the most important ways. In today’s blog, we’ll pay particular attention to two benefits.

1. They turn your customers into advertisers. When a customer buys a gift card from you, he or she is essentially advertising your company. Your gift card recipient is pretty much being told, “shop here, you’ll love it!” As Wilkerson writes, “gift cards let loyal customers refer other potentially like-minded consumers to a business. The consumer who purchases the card will usually evangelize a product, service or brand that a business offers as part of the gift-giving process.”

He goes on to note that gift cards are “very low cost, low risk” propositions for businesses to bring in new customers. They are cheap alternatives to traditional advertising, he says. “Plus, gift cards tend to be very ‘sticky;’ consumers hold on to them for a while and can be reminded about a business every time they open their wallet. They’re almost like miniature billboards,” writes Wilkerson.

2. They make you more money than the face value of the card. It has very often been reported that when customers use gift cards to make their purchases, they end up spending more than the value of the card. To the customers, huge discounts are being received since they aren’t required to pay the value of the card with their own money. To the merchant, additional revenue is being received by a shopper who has been referred to the store.

As Wilkerson writes, “gift cards usually come in neatly rounded balances, like $25, $50, or $100 dollars; however, sales tax typically makes spending exactly $25 hard to do. Most customers will find something else they want and then pay a little more to ensure they spend the entirety of the card in one visit. This means the business earns additional marginal revenue from those customers (typically around 20%).”

Don’t you think it’s about time that you start reaping the benefits that gift cards can provide your business? They have been proven time and time again. You’re bound to get new customers and increase, not only your sales in general, but the amounts that people are spending when they visit your store. Give Canadian POS Corporation a call at 1-877-748-2884 to order your gift cards today!