GiftCard Partners Blog

It’s been a little over a year since the Speedway acquisition of Hess Retail Network, and executives are excited that the conversion to the Speedway brand is “significantly ahead of schedule”. Nearly 1,000 of the 1,245 Hess locations have been rebranded to Speedway and 240 have been remodeled or are in the process of being remodeled.

Top stories from the CVS/pharmacy October eNewsletter!

While the change of seasons brings us relief from the summer heat, we also start to see an increase in illness. October is the start of flu season, and on average, your employees will lose almost 3 days of work from the flu. Each flu season results in approximately $7 billion in lost productivity.

Imagine offering merchandise or a gift card instead of a standard $10 off incentive to drive sales. Changing your discount structure in such a way may seem crazy but new research from Ifeelgoods may have you thinking differently. The research revealed that, if given a cash-based offer or a non-cash reward, consumers carried more brand equity and purchase intent than when retailers put more cash back in consumers’ pockets. The study revealed that non-cash incentives had diverse positive correlations with consumers including:

GiftCard Partners, Inc. has been at the forefront of B2B gift cards since we started out more than a decade ago. Some might call it obsession, others might say it's our job, but we like to use one word in particular, passion. That passion led us to commission a B2B Gift Cards Study back in 2013. We teamed up with
Shapiro+Raj, a research company with more than 50 years of experience of conducting behavior and opinion research, to get a clear pulse on the B2B Gift Card Industry. As a company we are constantly learning and evolving in the marketplace as trends in technology, payments, wellness and much more continue to grow. In order to be the best partner for our clients, we needed a strong understanding of what was happening out on the front lines, with the consumer, not just B2B. Our 2014 B2B Gift Card Study did just that. We focused on two key areas:

Whole Foods locations will be increasing almost three-fold in the coming years. America's healthiest grocery store saw an 8% increase in sales in their third quarter, a record $3.6 billion. Strong cash flow and increased revenue have allowed room for this expansion. To start, Whole Foods has recently signed 8 new leases for both Whole Foods Market and the first opening of 365 by Whole Foods Market Stores, expected to hit the scene in 2016. 365 by Whole Foods is a new convenient and affordable way to get all the food you crave, 365 days a year. Grocery staples, fresh produce, prepared foods and more with the same quality standards as a typical Whole Food store.