Don’t assume that gift cards are for the holidays only. There are reasons to sell gift cards all year round. Consider the fact that there is always something to celebrate. Valentine’s Day, for example, is just around the corner. Love birds all over Canada will be celebrating their relationships and many presents will be exchanged. You better believe that among those presents will be many gift cards.
How do gift cards increase your brand awareness? Selling gift cards in your store will not only help you to capitalize on the fact that gift-giving is a year-round activity, it will also help you to grow your reach within the buying public. Gift cards give a business that sells them a “mystique”, of sorts. It communicates that the business is more of a “big deal” than it is a small-time enterprise.
When you sell gift cards in your store, it tells consumers that you have a store worth checking out. And, more often than not, that is what happens. You see, a gift card is as a good a recommendation as you’re ever going to get. When someone buys a gift card in your store, it’s as good as saying “try this store, I highly recommend it”. Generally, the gift card recipient will be encouraged to visit your place of business in order to buy something for “free”.
How do gift cards help to increase sales? Well, quite obviously, gift cards provide you with an entirely new product line. Displaying them at the cashier communicates that you have something new and special to offer your customers. And that “new and special” basically translates into “convenient”. A gift card is a gift shopper’s dream come true. It makes the entire process of gift-giving incredibly easy.
Of course, they enable recipients to get whatever they want as well. So, it takes the pressure off the buyer to find the “right” gift. With a gift card, the gift is always right! That means that your gift cards are going help encourage more sales – not only because the gift cards themselves are selling, but because gift card recipients will be introduced to the many other products you have for sale.
As well, it’s important to note that gift cards can also help to increase your average transaction amount. It’s well known, among merchants who sell gift cards, that gift card recipients tend to spend more than the face value of their cards. Because they are getting significant discounts, based on the face values of their cards, gift card recipients generally have little to no issues spending a little bit of their own money on their purchases.
“Not only do gift cards generate more sales by encouraging new and loyal customers to ‘cash’ them in by shopping with you, but it’s been demonstrated that shoppers using the cards often spend more than their face value,” says Beth Duff on TransFirst.com, “This ‘uplift’ is additional profit for you, and the customer leaves believing they received real value for their money, making them more likely to return in the future.”
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.