Gift Cards Grow Wildly In Popularity

In case you are not yet convinced that gift cards are hugely popular items during the holiday season, look no further Katie Little’s report for CNBC. Earlier this month, Little reported that Starbucks released limited edition gift cards that cost $450 each! Now, you may be thinking that that is a pretty heft cost for a gift card – especially one for a shop that sells coffee.

But nevertheless, the pricey gift cards sold out in no time. Almost literally! As Little reports, in 2012, the limited edition Starbucks cards sold out in six minutes. But this year, the 1,000 available cards sold out in just seconds! According to Alexis Maybank of the website, Gilt.com where the cards were sold, “It took just seconds this year to sell out, which was phenomenal…The second (the site) opened up, they bought it.”

Saying that gift cards are popular is now considered an understatement. People want them. It’s that simple. No matter how big or small a business is, it can greatly succeed in increasing sales by offering its customers the ability to purchase gift cards in a variety of denominations. This has been proven time and time again. For Starbucks, gift cards have already helped for 2013 to be their biggest year ever.

“Our Starbucks card had its best holiday season in history, as measured by any metric, with more than $1 billion loaded during Q1, the most ever loaded onto any kind of Starbucks card,” said the company’s CEO Howard Schultz in Little’s article. The card itself, also represents an incredible anomaly in the gift card business. It is actually worth less than the $450 it is sold for!

“Each card comes with $400 preloaded and gold status in Starbucks\’ loyalty program,” explains Little, “The card is slightly unusual in that it sells for more than the merchandise value.” According to Linda Mills, Starbucks\’ director of retail brand public relations, “it actually costs us more than $50 to produce this card…That\’s what you\’re paying for—the quality of the card itself.”

Sound crazy? Even we have to admit that we’ve not heard of a gift card that sells for more than the cash value it provides customers. But this news story makes one thing for certain: people love their gift cards! And your customers will love the ones you make available for them this and every holiday season. Are you selling gift cards at your place of business?

If not, you could be missing out on some major business opportunities. Give Canadian POS Corporation a call at 1-877-748-2884. Let’s make it so that in 2014, you’re not missing out on any of the opportunities that gift cards can provide you. They not only increase sales, but they assure that you’ll have customers revisiting your stores after the holidays.

With that, we’d like to take this opportunity to wish you the happiest of holidays! From our family, here at Canadian POS Corporation, to yours, here’s hoping you have a joyous, safe and restful holiday season. This blog represents our last one for the year 2013, by the way. So we look forward to seeing you again in 2014. Have a very happy new year!