GiftCard Partners Blog

Millennials, those who currently are in the 18-33 age range, will make up 75% of the workforce by 2025. This generation posses an entirely different outlook on workplace culture than the generation before them. Technology is the primary Millennial influence, both in and out of the workplace. What are the best incentives for millennials to be motivated? Growing research shows that point system incentive programs have the highest success level, especially with Millennials. These employees want to not only be recognized, but they also want choices in how they are rewarded as well. Points programs are virtually foolproof, easy to understand, appeal to the interests of many different types of participants, tend to have higher participation rates, and are just plain fun! One amazing employee points program incentive model is the Values In Action program at CVS/pharmacy. An online rewards system where colleagues and managers can recognize one another by granting points that are redeemable for merchandise, travel vouchers, gift cards, and even the option to make a charitable donation. While points programs work best for Millennials, they can be customized for any diverse workforce. 
For more information on why points programs are so popular check out this article by Quality Incentive Company.

The 2014 Loyalty Guide is out and full of stats, insight and industry knowledge. One of the featured chapters this year is 60 "loyalty lessons." This is a retail focused look on how loyalty can affect your business and how your customers purchase your products. A strong loyalty program can boost your customer return rate and raise each consumer's life time value, while a bad loyalty program can be detrimental, even in the best economic climate.
Here are three of our favorites from the chapter but all 60 employee and customer loyalty lessons can be found here. 

Why is a B2B Gift Card Program so crucial? Take a look at this infographic to better understand how a well-designed and executed program generates incremental business. A well designed B2B gift card program can help you generate incremental business by:

Although we all know that gift cards are nothing new, it's also clear that they're not going anywhere anytime soon. Much of their stable market has to do with the new digital trends and shifts happening within the gift card industry. With these shifts, comes a change in consumer perception of gift cards as well. Gift cards are a way for retailers to appeal to their consumers, making loyal shoppers out of many of their customers through gift card reward programs. But gift cards have also remained popular as purchases for, well, gifts. Much of this is due to convenience, especially with the growth of digital e-cards, which make it simple to purchase and send quickly and without waiting in line. For those retailers  looking to increase their gift card sales, however, they may have to offer a little something extra along with them. According to a new survey,
17 percent of consumers won't buy a gift card until they see a promotion of some sort happening along side it, and 23 percent take promotions into consideration when deciding where to buy their gift cards between competing retailers. But as anyone in retail or the gift card industry knows, no matter how the technology or promotions change, gift cards will always give customers an incentive to visit your store, a gift that's priceless.
Statistics are courtesy of Incentive -- read the full article here.

Our parents all taught is the golden rule. "Do unto others as your would have done to you." In instances of employee appreciation, we broke it down into 3 key rules. If employees are appreciated at the right times and in the right ways, their tenure with the company will be longer and no one will go home and complain about work or their boss or the annoying colleague two cubes down. Here's what we came up with. Have additional suggestions? Leave us a comment.