Posts Tagged ‘Marketing’
Thursday, August 4th, 2011
The number of consumers shopping across multiple channels is expanding while retailers everywhere face margin challenges and an uncertain economy. Consumers will seek information both on-line, and through mobile technology but will only shop in the most convenient channel. Multi-channel retail has become theexpectation (and a competitive advantage). This strategy allows the company to be everywhere the consumer is shopping, and lowers the risk the shopper will inquire at their outlet, and spend their money elsewhere. The difficult part of multi-channel retail is making the transition and keeping up with the consumer trends.
How are multi-channel retailers reacting to this change in consumer shopping?
- 67% of retailers currently enable cross-channel returns ( buy it on the internet, return instore)
- 64% of retailers provide product availability across channel
- 31% provide loyalty point redemption through multiple channels
- 23% provide transparency/consistency of pricing
- 18% provide in store self-serve kiosks
These are pretty staggering numbers. The retail industry is changing based on consumer dollars, because in this kind of unstable economy retailers have to follow the money, and find consumers on the consumer’s terms. What do you think? Leave us a comment and let us know how you use multi-channel retailers, or how you see the technology being used in the industry.
Tags: E-Commerce, gift cards, Marketing, mobile
Posted in General, Gift Card Technology, Gift Card Trends, Retailer & Merchant Topics | No Comments »
Thursday, July 7th, 2011
Daily deal sites are increasingly popular with consumers across the country, however they are posing increasing problems with the retailers who offer these “too good to be true” deals. Be careful how your company interacts with daily deal sites so they attract more customers, and don’t cost your business too much potential revenue. For example, if you give gift cards away at a discount is that too much free money? Here are some tips to success in the daily deal arena:
- Use sparingly: a special deal should be special, don’t offer your goods or services constantly, because then it devalues the promotion
- Comparison shop: shop around different deal sites and see which one lets you keep the most revenue
- Budget for the worst: walk away if the worst-case scenario could seriously hurt your business
- Consider alternatives: seriously consider if this is the right move for your business, although this is trendy it might be more practical to buy traditional ad space or promotions
- Beware the sales pitch: daily deal sites make their deal sound appealing, make sure the deal is as good as it sounds for your business
Have you used a daily deal site? How did it go? Let us know, especially if you used this for gift cards by leaving a comment!
For more information on the down-sides of daily deal sites, click here
Tags: daily-deal sites, E-Commerce, gift cards online, Marketing
Posted in General, Gift Card Trends, Incentives & Engagement | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011
Gift Cards are the most popular employee incentives in today’s market. It is easy to forget why so many people use gift cards, so let’s review the advantages experienced both by employers and employees.
Employer Advantages of Gift Cards:
- Easy
- Provide quick
- Less expensive to ship than traditional
- E-Cards or E-Certifications allow instant redemption
Employee Advantages of Gift Cards:
- Allows individuals to choose
- One gift card provides access to a variety of reward
- Has the recognition power by allowing employees to only use the reward in a way that they truly want, versus an everyday situation like you can with
- Use of Gift Cards creates a strong recognition system which boosts employee morale
Why and how does your company use gift cards in their employee incentive and recognition programs?
Information Gathered from “Rewards Are In The Cards” article In May/June 2011 Issue of Premium Incentive Products Magazine
Tags: B2B gift cards, employee incentives, employee motivation, gift cards, Marketing
Posted in General, Gift Card Trends, Incentives & Engagement | Comments Off
Monday, March 28th, 2011
A major advancement in mobile payment came last week when Google announced that it will enable content monetization through Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile payment systems. This could not only make a mobile phone into a payment system, but also maximize and transform the effectiveness of point of sale displays. This announcement comes shortly after Apple made a similar announcement about implementing NFC mobile payment options on its mobile devices.
This development enables phones to become as or more important than someone’s wallet, because it adds the functionality of a payment system for goods and services, to the already multi-faceted smart phone market. To learn more about Google and NFC technology click here. Any thoughts how this might affect the mobile gift card market going forward?
Tags: Marketing, mobile, Promotions
Posted in General, Gift Card Technology | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
“As gift cards become more popular with consumers, brands are also looking into the cards for different programs. From loyalty rewards to in-store rewards, gift cards are becoming an integral part of loyalty marketing, but is this solution right for your brand?”
by Kristina Knight
Check out the Loyalty 360 story here: Are gift cards right for your loyalty program?
Tags: gift cards, Loyalty, loyalty 360, loyalty marketing, loyalty rewards, Marketing
Posted in General, Loyalty | No Comments »
Thursday, March 17th, 2011
Here are a few tips for establishing loyalty programs every small business should know about to maximize success:
1. Do unto others.
2. Clearly disclose all program benefits and rules (including potential restrictions).
3. Offer attractive redemption options.
4. Communicate with customers.
5. Empower employees.
For more information on these best practice rules check out this article, and keep these in mind when building your company’s next loyalty program.
Tags: employee motivation, gift cards, incentive program, Loyalty, Marketing, productive employees, rewards
Posted in General, Loyalty | No Comments »
Monday, March 14th, 2011
At Lucy Wortham James Elementary in St. James Missouri students are not just encouraged to have a perfect attendance record, they are rewarded. Every student with a perfect attendance record at the end of each month is entered into a drawing to win a gift certificate sponsored by a local business. This shows how prevalent incentive programs, and gift card rewards are becoming, even for kids. Teaching kids the importance of punctuality, and positive work ethic is important. Gift cards also allow for a sense of independence as the kids can ultimately pick out their own reward. To read more about the incentive program click here.
Tags: gift cards, incentive program, Loyalty, Marketing, rewards
Posted in Fundraising, General | No Comments »
Monday, February 28th, 2011
45 Percent of active mobile phone uses have indicated that they would be interested in using their mobile phones to utilize the value of gift cards, as well as pay for goods and services. This statistic is especially interesting because in the same survey 73 percent of respondents also indicated they had significant concerns regarding privacy and identity theft in using mobile technology. This shows that mobile technology is going to become more and more important to the gift card industry, and the benefits are clearly outweighing the risks, even with the technology being so new. For more information on the growing mobile market for gift cards check out this Iewy News article
Tags: gift cards, Marketing, mobile, Promotions
Posted in General, Gift Card Technology | No Comments »
Monday, February 21st, 2011
The Mercator Group referenced in our last post presented at the PrePaid Congress and posed an interesting question. We don’t have the answer yet because the survey is ongoing but what do you think the answers could be?
In 2015 (five years) what percentage split of the total gift card market for prepaid closed loop gift cards will be?
Plastic ___%
Virtual ___%
Mobile Wallet ____%
Leave comments and let us know what you think.
Tags: gift cards, Marketing, mobile, online gift cards, Prepaid Card Congress
Posted in General | No Comments »
Friday, February 18th, 2011
GiftCard Partners attended the 2nd annual Prepaid Congress this week, so over the coming week or so we will be posting information from the Congress.
E-certifications, are an emerging closed loop gift card technology within the incentive industry that allow retailers to instantly deliver incentives to their customers through either cell phone technology, or online. According to the Mercator Group 33% of retailers in the U.S. currently offer e-certification incentives. E-certifications can save incentive companies fulfillment charges, and provide instant gratification to the customers receiving the incentives. E-certifications are opening up new markets for retailers who are able to participate because e-certifications are opening up new avenues to contact customers and deliver marketing messages. Some studies even suggest that e-certs are more effective at delivering memorable long lasting marketing messages than physical gift cards.
Tags: E-Certs, E-Commerce, gift cards, gift cards online, incentive program, Loyalty, Marketing, mobile, Prepaid Card Congress, Promotions, rewards
Posted in General, Gift Card Events, Retailer & Merchant Topics | No Comments »
