Gift Cards – A new Revenue Line for Brands
The use of gift cards is on the rise, not only because customers love them but also because brands get tremendous benefits in return. Brands’ gift cards help enhance brand awareness, boost cash flow, and promote customer loyalty.
Additionally, the gift card market is predicted to grow to a value of $932.11 billion by 2028. The growth is expected to occur because of the rise in mobile-based payments and increased gifting culture.
With the rapid growth in gift card popularity, there are several ways that businesses can leverage these incentives to create new revenue streams. Let’s explore how that is possible through the distribution of gift cards.
Leveraging Gift Cards as a Business Offering to Generate Additional Revenue
In fact, there are many innovative ways to use brand gift cards as a new revenue-generating channel.
Five key ways to achieve this are discussed below:
1. Refunds
Gift cards can then be used as a method of refund, allowing customers to return them for other purchases and redeem the value.
2. Effective discounts and Cashbacks
Discounts and cashback are excellent techniques to increase footfall on your websites when sales are slow. Discounted gift cards enable you to enhance the overall customer experience.
Additionally, they help reduce the chances of losing a customer by offering exciting prices that are personalized for them based on their shopping behavior.
For example, you can set up automated tiered gift card discounts for your VIP customers. This way, you will not only incentivize repeat purchases but also reward loyalty, encouraging customers to spend more to unlock higher discounts.
These challenges can range from simple daily goals to more complex team-based competitions. By infusing fun and competition into workplace recognition, gamification not only boosts engagement but also fosters a culture of achievement and continuous improvement among employees.
3. Gift Card Marketplaces
Leverage regional events and festivities to launch new gift cards to these marketplaces to get more traffic and increase revenue.
4. Loyalty Programs
This not only retains your customers but it also encourages them to return and shop more frequently with you. Be sure to create a loyalty gift card that is easy to use and usable at physical stores as well.
5. Social Media
Social media is the dark horse of revenue today. Gift cards are digital, which makes them accessible anywhere on the internet, even on social media.
Given that about 59% of the global population uses social media today, this is a great opportunity to create a new revenue stream by making gift cards available on your social media channels.
When it comes to distributing gift cards, you want to ensure they’re easily accessible and visible to your target audience. Integrating gift card promotions seamlessly into your social media strategy can significantly boost revenue. To promote gift cards effectively, utilize engaging content formats such as interactive posts, stories, or live streams.
6. Brand Presence
Additionally, gift cards used as gifts can reach new recipients, extending brand awareness beyond the initial purchaser. Gift card exchanges, where people trade or sell unwanted gift cards, also help brands reach a wider audience by circulating the cards among diverse groups.
These methods enable brands to extend their presence beyond their physical stores, apps, or websites, which boosts brand recognition and expands their customer base in the long run.
7. New Product Line
8. Customer Acquisition
Gift cards work as a bridge between your existing customers and a new consumer pool, helping enhance brand awareness.
When new consumers receive your brand’s gift cards from existing customers, they are encouraged to explore your products. This helps increase brand awareness and bring in more customers, making market expansion easier.
The Gift Card Impact on Business
1. Upselling Opportunity
By strategically pricing gift cards and offering enticing promotions, businesses can incentivize customers to explore higher-priced products or services, ultimately driving incremental sales and profitability.
2. Improved Cash Flow
3. Breakage
From a business perspective, breakage represents essentially free revenue, as the goods or services associated with the unredeemed gift cards do not need to be provided. This unclaimed value contributes directly to the company’s profits, bolstering financial performance without incurring corresponding costs.
4. Repeat Customers, Recurring Purchases
5. New Customer Acquisition
Implementing Effective Gift Card Programs to Drive Revenue
Below are five ways in which the gift card impact can be maximized:
- Choose the right partner: In order for gift card programs to be seamless and glitch-free, it is important to select the right gift card platforms and partners.
- Effective and quick integrations: All the gift card programs need to be efficiently integrated with the backend operations for them to be seamless. This may include employee training to man the cash registers as well.
- Customer-oriented service selection: Make sure that your gift card offerings are aligned with what the customers need and prefer to shop for.
- Innovative usage: Develop innovative ways to use gift cards, such as clubbing gift cards with marketing initiatives or using them for easy refunds.
Wrapping Up
Gift cards are popular for more reasons than one. From creating brand awareness to bringing repeat customers, from rewarding loyal customers to enhancing cash flows, gift cards can do it all.
However, to fully capitalize on these advantages, it’s essential to choose the right platform and partner for your gift card solutions, such as Qwikcilver.
With Qwikcilver, you can effortlessly establish omnichannel gift card programs that seamlessly integrate with your existing backend systems. Our user-friendly SaaS platform simplifies the process, ensuring swift implementation and optimal results.
