3 Benefits Of Selling Gift Cards During The Holiday Shopping Rush

With just a couple of weeks to go in October, retailers from all over Canada are beginning to gear up for the always-busy holiday shopping season. It goes without saying that malls will soon be packed with shoppers looking to buy gifts. And it should also go without saying that it would be wise for your store to carry one of the most sought-after holiday gifts: gift cards. The season for selling gift cards is definitely here!

Now, it should be mentioned that gift cards tend to sell very well all year round. Of course, there are many occasions when gift cards are given as gifts. Among them are birthdays, anniversaries, and graduations. But when the end-of-year holiday season arrives and consumers begin looking for gifts for such celebrations as Christmas and Hanukkah, it’s important for business owners to stock up on the items that will be in much higher demand.

What are the benefits of selling gift cards during the holiday shopping rush? Here are three:

1. It increases customer loyalty. It’s often been said that it’s easier to market your brand to your current customers than it is to advertise in efforts to get new customers. Selling gift cards during the holidays helps you to satisfy both groups of people by satisfying the first group first. When you offer your current customers gift cards, you give them extra reasons to continue to support you. And their purchases become recommendations to others who may never have shopped with you before.

By offering gift cards, you make shopping experiences so much easier. And it helps you to grow your customer base through customer referrals. “By giving (your customers) more options to choose from, you’re increasing their ability to buy from you,” says Brian Manning on BancardSales.com, “Happy customers like buying this from you. When they’re happy they tell their friends and come back to buy from you more often.”

2. It grows your customer base. Although gift cards help to satisfy the needs of your current customers, it must be reiterated that they work wonders in building your customer base. As mentioned, gift cards are essentially recommendations. They are little rectangular referrals that say “try this store out, I think you’ll like it”. Whenever you sell a gift card, consider it an opportunity to welcome a new customer to your business.

“Most of the time gift cards are given as gifts,” states Manning, “This inherently means that someone who has not previously been exposed to your business is given an opportunity to come in and become a new customer of yours. For the new customer it’s a ‘free’ chance to try out your product or service. This is a great way to increase exposure to your business and gain new regular and loyal customers.”

3. It increases customer spending. When a gift card recipient enters your store, he/she is likely to spend more than the value of his/her card. To that person, the extra spending is easy because a “discount” is still being received on the purchase. But to you, you are earning more money than originally anticipated from the gift card purchase. Manning explains that this phenomenon is quite commonplace.

“Over 60% of gift card holders spend more than the value of the card and nearly 75% of those who do will overspend by 20% of the value of the card,” he reports, “That’s to say that someone who brings a $100 gift card to your business will spend $120. The reason for this is that consumers don’t want to feel like they are leaving free money behind so they spend beyond the value of the card in order to use all of the ‘free’ money they have been given.”

For more information about how you can begin selling gift cards in your store, call Canadian POS Corporation at 1-877-748-2884 or email us at info@localhost.