Posts Tagged ‘B2B gift cards’
Monday, April 2nd, 2012
Since gift cards are given as gifts, incentives and employee rewards, they are often thought of by retailers and merchants as a customer acquisition tool. Let’s say a customer doesn’t shop at a particular retailer or merchant often or at all. Yet a family member, friend or employer gives a particular brand based on it meshing well with the recipients’ needs. This gift card now becomes a new customer acquisition tool or a customer loyalty tool for the retailer.
BUT, are retailers also thinking of their own gift cards as a tool to lower operating costs? When your
customers use debit and credit cards for their purchases, the burden of the transaction fees falls on that retailer. There are no fees when your customers utilize their closed-loop gift cards in your own name.
The impressive numbers add up when you think of the difference your gift cards can make when selling
them by the hundreds and thousands in the B2B market. GiftCard Partners’s customers buy multi-millions of dollars in face value gift cards annually across all our retail brands. Those are all consumers using your gift cards versus credit or debit payment card options that rack up fees charged to you.
Check out First Data’s Perspective: The Evolution of Gift Card Strategy to see how retailers and merchants are re-evaluating their cost of payment acceptance at their POS locations.
The author:
Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.
Tags: B2B gift cards, building customer loyalty, cost of payment, customer loyalty, employee incentives, First data report, gift card strategy, new customers, retailer credit card fees, retailer gift cards
Posted in General, Gift Card Trends, Retailer & Merchant Topics | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 21st, 2012
It should be of no surprise that mobile payment was a choice topic at this year’s Prepaid Expo, but as purveyors of the B2B portion of retail sales; how will we get to mobile payment?
Retailers and merchants are living (or about to live) the latest technology and game changing concepts about the consumer waving their mobile device to pay. But the B2B portion of the market still has major issues to overcome. The questions that the Prepaid Expo asks ring loud in order to capture consumers and also ring true for your B2B customers and subsequent end-consumers:
What will be frictionless in your environment?
What will bring the greatest value?
What will be the best authentication?
What’s the best way to reduce cost?
How do you make prepaid product more relevant and valuable to cardholder before, during, after the
payment transaction?
Interesting quote from Bill Gates about the future: “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten.”–Bill Gates
Mobile buying is inevitable, but are you considering B2B gift card sales in your mobile prepaid strategy? If not, when will you shape your change?
Read up on the Prepaid Expo’s Live from Prepaid Expo: The Future of Prepaid & Mobile
The author:
Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.
Tags: B2B gift cards, eGift cards, mobile gift cards, mobile payments, Prepaid expo, prepaid technology, virtual gift cards
Posted in General, Gift Card Events, Retailer & Merchant Topics | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 14th, 2012
Are you running a customer loyalty points program and looking for the right FIT for your customer rewards? Selecting the right gift cards to include in your program goes beyond strong brands and lots of locations. The gift card brands you offer should not only be a category leader, but they should innovate by facilitating a perfect fit for their customers, and in this day-and-age; they should provide social experiences that enhance the buying experience.
Last September, Charming Shoppes launched Fashion Genius™ for Lane Bryant® and its sister brands Catherines®, Fashion Bug® and Sonsi®. The Fashion Genius™ includes breakthrough “fit and style technology that takes the guesswork out of shopping online, enabling plus size women to turn personalized recommendations into fully styled, head-to-toe outfits.”
Now couple that technology leadership with offering a mobile shopping experience which integrates PayPal, adds customer crowd-sourcing and shopper collaboration on social media platforms, and; Charming Shoppes offers your loyalty program participants more than a cutting edge gift card reward, it’s a seamless customer experience.
Read more about Charming Shoppes’ Fashion Genius and their latest advancements in social shopping technology.
The author:
Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.
Tags: B2B gift cards, bulk gift cards, Catherines gift cards, customer loyalty, fashion apparel gift cards, Fashion Bug gift cards, Lane Bryant gift cards, loyalty program incentives, loyalty program rewards, loyalty rewards
Posted in General | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
We read a lot about gift card “breakage”. That pre-paid industry term that translates to “gift cards that have been sold but never redeemed”. Breakage is a negative term for gift card holders and it’s really not such a positive one for retailers (surprisingly). Although breakage leads to higher profit margins; retailers and merchants are NOT gaining customers or building loyalty if those gift card holders never visit the store to become a real customer.
Let’s turn this principle into an opportunity for employers, loyalty programs, and Scrip gift card programs, to communicate to their participants and engage them with your program. You know who you have given gift cards to. So, communicate with those program participants, and use that information to engage them in your program. Although many will have redeemed their gift cards, show you care and send them a reminder to use their cards…that employee, loyalty points redeemer, or the Scrip gift card buyer will thank you for the reminder.
The author:
Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.
Tags: B2B gift cards, bulk gift cards, corporate incentives, employee recornition, loyalty programs, loyalty programs and gift cards
Posted in General, Incentives & Engagement | No Comments »
Thursday, December 15th, 2011
It is widely known and accepted that employee engagement is critical to productivity and improving your company’s bottom line. As 2011 draws to a close and we look to 2012, and a (hopefully) improving job market, employment agency Randstad released some concerning numbers this week. In their annual “Employee Attachment Index” survey, which measures employee-employer attachment, it appears that employee engagement is decreasing and that many employees are looking to move on, as soon as the market is more stable.
- 56 percent of those surveyed believe they would not be able to find a job they would accept
- nearly half expect the job market to improve next year
- 47 percent plan to explore other opportunities as soon as the job market picks up
Some of this may be due to recent market research that suggest that employees do not feel as engaged at work, and are simply going through the motions out of necessity. It is important to involve your employees in the company, and ensure they feel appreciated especially during the holiday season. Small tokens of appreciation such as a small gift card or flexible holiday hours can really improve their outlook. The promising news is that 74% of those surveyed feel optmistic about their organization’s future, so ensure that they see themselves as a part of that future, and not just a cog in the wheel.
The author:
Rachel Merkin is a digital marketing professional . She has been exploring the worlds of social media and B2B gift cards since 2006. When she is not blogging, tweeting, or finding ways to leverage Facebook as a marketing tool, she spends as much time at the beach as she can.
Tags: B2B gift cards, employee motivation, employee recognition, productive employees
Posted in General, Incentives & Engagement | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011
Are you prepared for total immersion into e-tail? Facts to consider if your answer is NO:
- 1 in 3 online consumers to use a tablet by 20141
- The purchase conversion rate is 3% for shoppers using a traditional PC, it is 4% or 5% for shoppers using tablets, says Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester Research.2
- Many retailers also report that tablet users place bigger orders—in some cases adding 10% to 20% more to the tab—on average than shoppers using PCs or smartphones.2
Although only approximately 50% of the top retailers are accepting gift cards online; we hope that advancements in buying will prompt retailers and merchants to accept their gift cards on line, in order
to capture the growing tablet shopper category. Many more retailers offer eGift Cards to consumers versus B2B, but we also hope that taking these first steps will ease retailers into offering eGift cards along with their plastic option in the B2B arena.
As a retailer, are you taking these interesting tablet user statistics into consideration?
Sources:
1. eMarketer Digital Intelligence
2. WSJ Online: Tablets: Ultimate Buying Machines
The author:
Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.
Tags: B2B gift card challenges, B2B gift cards, e-tail and gift cards, ecommerce and gift cards, eGift cards, gift cards online, GiftCard Partners, online shopping, retail sales and tablets, tablets and online shopping, virtual gift cards
Posted in General, Gift Card Technology, Gift Card Trends, Retailer & Merchant Topics | No Comments »
Monday, November 21st, 2011
“After years of recession-fueled frugality, more Americans are feeling the holiday gift-giving spirit in 2011”, says a recent USAA survey. Has your company’s holiday giving increased this year? Budgeting was likely done a year ago, but are you spending more for employee and customer gifts due to better times or do you fall in the “budget glue” category?
Have you thought of gift cards as budget glue? You can literally stick to the dollar of your company gift giving budget with flexible denominations, while giving the gift that people really want – choice!
Source:
CreditCards.com, Infographic: Americans ramp up gift giving for 2011 holiday season
The author:
Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.
Tags: 2011 holiday shopping, B2B gift cards, bulk gift cards, corporate gifts, credit card trends, employee gifts, holiday shopping budgets, holiday shopping trends, perfect employee gifts, retailers and social media
Posted in General, Gift Card Trends | No Comments »
Thursday, November 17th, 2011
Gift cards give peace of mind to the giver; nearly 1/3 of respondents to a recent TD Bank survey, “…believes the greatest stresses lie in not knowing what to buy or worrying whether the recipient will like the gift.” Don’t stress, give gift cards. Companies like GCP sell gift cards to companies giving corporate gifts to partners, customers and employees. It makes fiscal sense, as there are discounts offered for various levels of buying in bulk.
Why are gift cards the most coveted gift to receive this holiday season? Your employees will use them to button up last minute shopping, 31% of respondents of the survey said they look to use their gift cards for day-to-day expenses like groceries and gasoline. You’ll be offering your employees and customers more than a holiday gift; you’ll be offering them help.
For more up-to-date consumer sentiments and statistics on gift cards, read: Spending Expected to Hold Steady This Year with Gift Cards the Preferred Gift
The author:
Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.
Tags: B2B gift cards, bulk gift cards, company holiday gifts, corporate holiday gifts, employee gifts, employee holiday gifts, gasoline gift cards, holiday gifts
Posted in General, Incentives & Engagement | 1 Comment »
Monday, November 7th, 2011
Veteran’s Day is this Friday, November 11th and we’re seeing lots of gift card promotions, offers and sales …but how many of them actually benefit US Veterans? One VA Medical Center held a women’s health program that gave away $20 gift cards to women who received HIV testing in the month of September. This was a great way to support our veterans while promoting routine female healthcare checks and disease control.
You may know that GCP has been collecting and sharing the great employer health and wellness uses of gift cards that we are capturing in our series of surveys – check out our blog: Health and Wellness Employer Gift Card Successes: for more great healthcare gift card uses.
Source: The Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee
The author:
Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.
Tags: B2B gift cards, gift card promotions, health and wellness, healthcare gift cards, veteran wellness, veterans day events
Posted in General, Health & Wellness | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
eGift and mobile gift cards are a popular topic as excitement grows around digital technologies. CreditCards.com reports that one half of the major gift card brands that offer eGift cards only started offering them this year. Retailers and merchants are ramping up to take advantage of growing mobile and tablet buying segments, as they are quickly becoming some of the most valuable online shoppers.
Interestingly, when GCP recently surveyed B2B gift card buyers; we found that the B2B market still prefers to purchase physical plastic cards over
GCP's Survey Finds Plastic Most Favorable
digital. 86.5% of B2B gift card buyers surveyed are still more comfortable with traditional plastic. We know that trophy value plays a part in the B2B buyers’ strategy, but perhaps eGift cards are still somewhat too mystical for buyers.
CreditCards.com breaks it down simply and clearly with 3 Digital Gift Card Varieties
- Email gifting is the most widespread, accounting for about 95% of the digital gifting market, recipients receiving the gift card in their
- Mobile gifting lets consumers use a smartphone app to send a gift card or have a gift card sent to a mobile
- Social gifting lets consumers send gift cards via social media sites. For example, Amazon.com lets customers send friends gift cards by posting the cards on their Facebook walls. CashStar’s CEO David Stone states that “Social gifting is growing at a rate of about 400 percent”
Are you ready to buy digital or are you still a fan of plastic? Why or Why NOT? Click here for the full CreditCards.com E-gift cards take center stage story
Source: CreditCards.com
The author:
Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.
Tags: B2B gift cards, bulk gift cards, corporate gifts, creditcards.com, digital gift cards, eCerts, eGift cards, Gift Card Trends, mobile gifting, plastic gift cards, social gifting, virtual gift cards
Posted in General, Gift Card Technology, Gift Card Trends, Retailer & Merchant Topics | No Comments »
