How Can Gift Cards Help To Grow Your Customer Relationships?

Over the past several years, we have committed many a blog post to the benefits that retailers enjoy by selling gift cards. Is it any wonder that gift cards continue to grow as one of the top requested gifts in the world? Canadian retailers who sell gift cards in their stores are well aware that they don’t have to wait until the holiday season for gift card sales to significantly increase their bottom lines.

But, in addition to growing sales, gift cards also help store owners to develop stronger relationships with the individuals that enter their stores. Not only do consumers view gift cards as extremely convenient (helping to provide ease to their shopping experiences), but gift cards make for great relationship growers!

Retailers can use gift cards as alternatives to cash returns.

A key ingredient to growing relationships with your customers is giving them reasons to keep coming back to your store. There’s no business quite like repeat business! So business owners who find ways to encourage return visits generally enjoy the most success. One way to do that is to offer gift cards as alternatives to cash when customers make returns. By putting the money back on a gift card, it ensures that it must be spent in your store.

“Larger retail outlets often give out gift cards to customers who go to a store to return a certain item but do not have a copy of their receipt with them,” informs 1800Accountant.com, “Simply offering customers a gift card is much easier than having to look up a transaction that the customer made. Plus, it’s a great incentive to customers by giving them a reason to come back and give your retail outlet a second chance.”

Track the spending habits of your gift card recipients.

When people enter your store to redeem their gift cards, it’s important that you see such instances as opportunities to get to know new people. After all, many of your gift card recipients will be visiting your store for the first time. Find ways to interact with these individuals and secure their contact information, letting them know that you’ll be sending them exclusive information about your store’s special sales, discounts and events.

“Think of ways that you can track the purchases of gift card recipients, and market products that are sure to be needed in the near future,” recommends Terri Scott on eCommerceInsiders.com, “Make every opportunity of connecting with the gift card shopper count! You might be able to upsell the shopper from a basic model into a premium product model that they’ve had their eyes on.”

Gift cards help to inspire customer loyalty.

If you’re looking to not just grow the number of customers who visit your store but boost the number of loyal supporters your store has, selling gift cards is practically a must. Keep in mind that they not only draw recipients to your store, but purchasers make your best of word-of-mouth promoters. Every purchase of one of your gift cards is the equivalent of a strong recommendation!

Why wouldn’t you want to sell gift cards to your customers? For more information about how you can begin selling gift cards right away, call Canadian POS Corporation at 1-877-748-2884 or email us at info@localhost.