GiftCard Partners Blog

We are just about halfway through the first month of 2015 and key indicators have the economy trending in a positive direction.  Consumer spending is rising, as are employee wages.  The #1 challenge that retailers will face in 2015 is consumer engagement:
How do you get your customers to stay loyal to your brand and spend their money in your store, instead of spending it elsewhere? In the past, consumer loyalty was based on four basic motivators:
convenience,
service,
pricing, and
brand identity.  While these motivators  still exist today, they have changed in rank and are different for every individual consumer.  Social media platforms and mobile apps also play a huge role in how your consumers identify with your brand.  Knowing where, when, and how your customers interact is crucial to keeping consumers engaged.  Brands can use these tools to listen to every one of their consumers and tailor offers to their specific needs and keep them engaged with your brand. Here are a few tips to help your consumer engagement in 2015: 1.
Reward More Than Just Purchases Loyalty programs were primarily based around purchase behavior.  The trend today is to reward a consumers
action.  Is your consumer checking-in to your store or event on Facebook?  Are they reviewing products or reading content regarding your brand?  Rewarding these actions can keep consumers engaged while providing them with meaningful incentives tailored specifically for them. 2.
Identify Your Most Passionate Customers Knowing your customer is an integral key to serving them better.  Some consumers become very passionate fans of your brand. Rewarding behaviors beyond customer spend will also give you access to valuable customer data.  These consumers should be rewarded for their insight into your brand as they often become your most vocal advocates and dedicated ambassadors. 3.
Stand For Something Sometimes a company needs to focus on more than just making the best product or having the best service, consumers are also looking for an emotional connection with your brand.  A perfect example: Nike and their swoosh logo.  Many consumers buy Nike sneakers because they want to be connected to everything that the swoosh represents - it's long history and connection to the world's most popular athletes.  Emotional connections are the main drivers of engagement, advocacy, and brand loyalty.
Read more about consumer engagement for 2015 along with some great industry examples here!

As we embark on 2015 and our workforce has shaken off the holiday rust it's important to think about how to maintain a culture of motivation not just through the cold winter months but throughout the year. Here are a few ways to keep employee motivation, productivity and job satisfaction at the top of your company's priority list all year long.

Now is a great time for your business to make innovative choices and stay ahead of the competition in 2015.   As a marketer, one must assess the best options to further build your brand and drive greater customer engagement. Digital gift cards have been a growing trend in the gift card industry, and here are the top 5 digital gift card trends for 2015: 1.
 Millennials Embrace Digital Gift Cards. - Millennials want instant gratification.  They want their needs satisfied "right here, right now" so digital gift cards are a logical solution when it comes to this target group.  In a
survey released by InComm last month, 18-35 year olds were likely to purchase at least one digital gift card during the holiday season.  The main reason for digital gift cards is that they can be purchased any place at any time with just the click of a mouse.  There is no need to get out of the house and wait in long lines at the grocery store.  Another appeal of digital gift cards is that they are completely customizable; customers can send personalized text, pictures, and in some cases, even video. 2.
Building Your Brand - Smart marketers realize that in a digital world gift cards open up brand new marketing opportunities.  The best brands are already catering to shifting trends and are inviting customers to a whole new customized gifting experience entirely online.  A great experience is also likely to make a brands campaign go viral with social network sharing. 3.
Digital Gift Cards Will Decrease Average Breakage - One of the reasons that digital gift cards are reigning in popularity is that they are less likely to get lost compared to their plastic counterparts. A
survey by
Bankrate revealed that 40% of 18-29 year olds end up losing their plastic gift cards.  With less loss, consumers are more likely to redeem the full value of the gift card and breakage rates begin to shrink.  Customers will utilize what they pay for and that will strengthen the customer/brand relationship and customers tend to redeem gift cards for significantly more than the gift card value.  Plus with digital gift cards being available on both mobile applications and mobile email, it's less likely the consumer will forget that the card is in their wallet. 4.
Loyalty Programs - As brands have embraced the shift from physical to digital gift cards, loyalty programs are following suit.  As opposed to loyalty programs shipping out individual cards to end-customers, they are able to email a gift card right to their client for instant gratification.  Brands will save on shipping and eliminate issues with lost gift cards and consumers won't have to wait to spend their gift. 5. M
arketers Can Bundle Digital Gift Cards with Products - For many years technology brands such as
Apple Inc., have bundled their brands.  For instance "Purchase a Mac and get a $100 iTunes gift card."  In 2015, more brands will follow this bundling method by offering a physical item with a digital gift card to make a more diversified and enticing promotion. Read the full story on The Top 5 Digital Gift Card Trends for 2015 at
IFeelGoods!  

Do you need employee engagement ideas to start the New Year off right? 
Is your current employee engagement strategy working, or could it use a little tweaking? Low employee engagement is not just a U.S. problem. According to
Gallup's 2014 study, only 13 % of employees worldwide are engaged at work. While the U.S. does have the highest employee engagement rating, the numbers are still troubling when looking at those who are disengaged. At the regional level, Northern America (the U.S. and Canada), has an employee engagement level of 29% but 54% of employees are considered
Not Engaged, and 18% considered
Actively Disengaged. Higher employee engagement increases productivity, reduces absenteeism and can decrease health care costs.  According to a 2013
report released by Gallup on the state of the American workplace, businesses are losing
$450-$550 billion annually due to active disengagement.  Implementing some or all of the employee engagement ideas can help increase profits for your organization, all while having a happy, engaged workforce. Here are a few employee engagement ideas:

GiftCard Partners insights on the 2013 pymnts.com Innovation Project held at Harvard University.

GiftCard Partners Executive Management was recently invited to attend the 2013 pymnts.com Innovation Project, which brought together retailers, payments industry experts, and thought leaders in the payments space to discuss the future trends in the industry. What the GCP team noticed was the overall difference in the way mobile payments and commerce are viewed by retailers when compared to the view within the payments industry. Payments industry leaders believe that since 51% of Americans have smartphones, and 25% have tablets, that mobile payments will gain traction with consumers, and change the way they will interact with retailers in the immediate future. However, retailers have a longer-term view of how mobile payments will integrate into their relationships with consumers. Since retailers need to manage interaction between mobile payments technology and their existing point of sale systems, the process will take time. Although retailers see this as a promising future trend, they also see there being a longer timeline given the extensive work and investments necessary in order to integrate with existing retailer technologies. It became apparent that the key to solving the future of mobile payments is ensuring that all parties involved are working together. This type of joint effort works to create industry standards and benchmarks that will allow variety in the market within a standard structure that meets the expectations of retailers and payments industry technologists alike. Mobile payments are viewed as an imminent trend that will transform the way consumers behave and the way in which retailers will interact with them. Consumers already constantly use their smartphones in retail interaction, from purchasing through credit card transactions on mobile apps, to shopping online for a lower price while in a brick and mortar store, also known as the common “showrooming” trend. It’s crucial that retailers stay current with the latest in consumer mobile usage and interaction, reacting to consumer trends as they are happening, in order to stay in touch and maintain a current relationship with the consumers who drive their business. Retailers are especially interested in reacting to innovations in retail interactions when those trends can affect their bottom line. Mobile payments not only add convenience for consumers but will also save retailers money in the long run. Rosie Rios, United States treasurer, noted that over the next 10 years the United States Government will move to making 100% of federal payments electronically. The transition to electronic payments will save the United States $1 billion. These payment innovation savings are of interest to retailers as they look to the future of mobile payments, their future technology investments, and most importantly the future of their relationships with customers. The mobile payments industry is looking to innovate the future of retail from a different perspective. Mobile payments is a fragmented technology sector with a variety of digital wallets, loyalty solutions, and innovative mobile payments vendors trying to gain traction within the retail industry. Everything seems to be focused on “the next big trend” and while some are realizing that their success was only temporary, other ideas and concepts are mature enough to gain some traction. The mobile payments environment can be chaotic and there are a lot of viewpoints on how mobile payments should work, but it seems that the technologists can sometimes be bogged down with the details. It is important here to not lose sight of the bigger picture and the important question to keep asking; how can this concept be adaptable and usable enough for retailers to be ready and able to jump on board? There is a chasm between where mobile payments vendors want the industry to be and the reality of when retailers will be ready to accept it. At the Innovation project, there was a
ThinkaThon®, where GiftCard Partners’ COO,
Deborah Merkin, and her team was tasked with figuring out what “the next point of sale system” would look like, and mobile payments were a huge part of the solution. The team, partially consisting of Dean Seifert of Vantiv, Eric Holfman of ROAM, and Farhan Ahmad of Barclay Card, came up with a solution that could solve the growing pains of the payments industry. In order to bring mobile payments technologists and retailers together, they first needed to work together to find industry standards. Without the cooperation of the major parties involved, working together to standardize what this industry needs to look like, retailers are going to get lost in outside organizations strategizing for them without their input. When both pieces of the industry are brought together retailers can articulate what they need to fast track mobile payment adoption, leaving technologists to strategize and build the products retailers are looking to adopt. Formalizing clear and relevant points about what vendors have to offer, what retailers need from vendors, and how to bring those two critical pieces together, will put the mobile payments industry on the road to success.