Why Gift Cards Remain Popular After The Holidays

The year 2020 (and a brand new decade along with it) is well underway. One week down, 52 to go! For many business owners all over Canada, the thought process is that it’ll take more than 40 of those weeks for gift cards to truly be in style again. After all, they are incredibly huge sellers during the holiday season.

While it is, of course, true that gift card sales skyrocket during the holidays, it’s short-sighted to assume they’re not year-round sellers. Gift cards continue to be highly sought-after items well after the holiday season is over.

Gift-giving takes place all year-round.

With the hype of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa now behind us for another year, let’s take a moment to remember that birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, weddings, baby births and a myriad of other reasons to celebrate all call for gift-giving throughout the year. For all occasions, gift cards remain on the tops of wish lists. Not to mention, contrary to popular belief, they remain excellent ways for gift-givers to personalize their gifts to their recipients.

“Most often, plastic gift cards come with a blank envelope,” explains Kyla Steeves on Checkfront.com, “The gift-giver can sign their name, write down the dollar amount or leave a thoughtful message, making it seem less generic and more personal.”

Gift cards help gift-givers manage the unusual tastes of their loved ones.

Let it be known to all that a gift card is very often a gift-giver’s dream come true. Why?  It eliminates the hassle of wondering what a loved one really wants. This is a special benefit for those who have to shop for people with unusual tastes. Does your loved one have an eclectic wardrobe? Does he/she have interests in items that are generally hard to find? 

With a gift card, the hassle of finding “the right thing” is eliminated. As Terri Scott asks on EcommerceInsiders.com, “What could be easier for gift givers than to purchase a branded gift card for their friends and loved ones, especially when the gift recipient has particular or unusual tastes?”

There is no season when getting a discount is out of style.

One of the top reasons people love gift cards is because they offer awesome discounts on big ticket items they couldn’t usually afford. Let’s suppose you’re in the market for a new video gaming system. However, the price tag of several hundred dollars is well outside your budget. By a receiving a number of gift cards from an electronic store, you can deduct their worth from the cost of the system and purchase it at a discount.

Selling gift cards will help merchants to generate sales of their big ticket items because redeemers tend to spend more than the value of their cards. “It’s inevitable that some shoppers will want to make purchases above and beyond the value of their gift card – and it’s not unethical to help them along!” Scott encourages, “Electronics, for instance, is a category notorious for generating upsells.”

Are you selling gift cards in your store or on your website? For information about the electronic gift cards available from Canadian POS, please don’t hesitate to call us at 1-877-748-2884 or email us at info@localhost.