Plastic Gift Cards for Your Small Business

Oct 30, 2013

If you’ve taken a look at the custom gift cards economy lately, you’ve seen the success businesses have been having. Plastic gift cards aren’t just for large corporations and big box stores anymore.

CNNMoney.com recently reported that 60 percent of Americans prefer receiving plastic gift cards in lieu of an actual present or gift. The popularity of gift cards is more than a trend: for years now they have consistently been the most popular gift that is exchanged during the holidays, as well. As the popularity of gift cards continues to increase, small businesses can take advantage of this sales opportunity by customizing their own business gift cards.

Benefits of Gift Cards for your small business

Gift cards are, ultimately, another product that your business offers to consumers. A closer look at their benefits, however, reveals a much larger diversity of positive impacts.

Custom gift cards can benefit your small business by:

• Driving additional sales. Customers that use gift cards as a payment option spend, on average, 33 percent more than the value of their card. That’s up-selling at it’s finest. Collecting a third more than the value of the card can have a significant impact on your sales. Add the fact that gift cards often bring new customers into your business, and you could see sustained growth.
• Acting as a marketing tool. Your logo and your name can be easily distributed and shared with others. When given as gifts, your business gift cards will draw new customers, increasing your consumer base. Displaying and selling your gift cards at other locations can also act as advertising. Many small business owners consider the money they spend on a gift card program as part of their marketing and advertising budget.
• Giving you helpful statistics. One of the most unique and powerful ways to leverage plastic gift cards is by using them to gather data about your customers that can inform your marketing and sales strategies. Magnetic stripes and bar codes on cards will allow you to track your marketing success. If you are experimenting with direct marketing, distributing them through sales people, or offering them at in-store displays. When the cards are redeemed, you can find out where they came from and which of your locations and efforts are most successful. Understanding where you are getting the best ROI can strengthen your sales and allow you to focus on your target markets (and can reveal new markets to you that you may not have been taking advantage of).

Staying abreast of consumer trends is a critical component to a successful business practice. Plastic gift cards give your customers the payment and product options that they clearly prefer.