GiftCard Partners Blog

In today's fast-paced business environment, improving productivity is not just about individual time management—it's about optimizing organizational performance as a whole. For business owners and managers, ensuring that their teams are operating efficiently and effectively can have a direct impact on the bottom line. Whether you're looking to enhance your team’s workflow, implement better management strategies, or simply make day-to-day tasks more manageable, staying updated with the latest productivity tips is essential.

This year Maritz Motivation is having their own "12 days of Christmas," revealing the
12 most redeemed items from their loyalty catalog and trends in electronics buying. 42% of the recent survey respondents indicated that they will redeem loyalty points to fund holiday shopping. What these consumers are buying could indicate large buying trends for the holidays. The first 3 items have been revealed, but one of the overarching themes to seasonal electronics buying could play directly into the health and wellness programs geared toward the early part of next year. Here are 3 seasonal trends:

Boston Market has their biggest sales day of the year on Thanksgiving Day. They serve over one million people in that one day alone. That’s 400% more customers than usual. And now with more and more retailers opening on Thanksgiving Day, Boston Market is becoming the go to option for retailers to treat their employees that have to work the holiday. But Thanksgiving Day isn’t the only growth the restaurant chain has experienced. People are shifting away from fatty foods and have developed more of an interest in healthier menu items, such as rotisserie chicken. For Boston Market this shift has increased their sales by over 25% in the last few years. Boston Market is looking to expand in both the U.S., opening 12-15 more restaurants in 2015, and a possible international expansion in the Middle East.
 View the recent interview with Boston Market CEO, George Michel here. Boston Market has been serving up fresh, home-style meals and high quality sides since 1985. With more than 490 restaurants from coast to coast, Boston Market is also one of the largest providers of catering services in the U.S. and provides same day ordering and delivery and you can even
order online! Boston Market is just one of the many fun gift card brands offered by
GiftCard Partners and fits into just about any incentive program.

Gift cards are versatile and make as good an employee reward as they do a sales driver to promote your brand.
First Data has released its 2014 Consumer Insights Survey, and it shows that gift cards can do as much for sales numbers as they can for motivating employees toward organizational goals. Here are two key components from the survey.

Surprisingly, we've found that fixed pay (salary) and individual performance pay have little affect on innovation, while variable group pay and indirect pay (employee benefits) have a much stronger impact.