2024 Holiday Gift Card Trends Business Owners Need to Know
As we head into the 2024 holiday season, gift cards remain a significant part of retailers’ strategies. The industry has seen incredible growth over the years, and the trend is far from slowing down. With the global gift card market projected to reach over $1.4 trillion by 2027, retailers are paying closer attention to new trends that can enhance customer experience and drive sales during the busiest shopping season of the year.
Delivering Winning Strategies for Loyalty Program
It's the ultimate question that marketers would love to have the answer to, how can retailers deliver winning strategies for their own loyalty programs? Loyalty drives sales, today, tomorrow and in the future, but how does a retailer keep loyalty fresh? Currently, U.S. households participate in over 20 loyalty programs, but less than 10% are actively using their accounts. Retailers need to produce winning strategies to have a successful loyalty program. Based on the existing loyal customer base, 37% of retailers believe that customer retention will be the #1 contributor to growth in the next 3 years. This customer retention correlates to same-store sales. 73% of smartphone users would like to connect their loyalty programs directly to their mobile devices. Recognition and rewards need to be differentiated. There is no one size fits all with rewards. In fact, lack of differentiation hinders program adoption. 69% of loyalty program members want to receive personalized discounts. Tracking technology allows retailers to gather shopper purchase history, spend, and browsing behaviors, allowing for retailers to offer personalized discounts. Lastly, well-planned implementation for loyalty programs is critical; the first 6 months of the launch being the most critical time for a loyalty program. Almost 30% of retailers rank store loyalty as a top 5 technology-related challenge in their industry.
Read the infographic “How Sweet It Is: The Satisfaction of a Successful Loyalty Program” here!
The All Payments Expo: Where Great Minds Come Together
The All Payments Expo
(APEX) is already in full swing this morning in Las Vegas and the GiftCard Partners team is looking forward to taking part in the discussions, collaboration, and merging of minds throughout the payments industry this week. The APEX allows a forum for Alternative Financial Services, Emerging Payments, Omnichannel Retail Strategies and Prepaid to come together to focus on areas of growth and convergence in payments. GCP was excited about the opportunity to sponsor a unique luncheon and joint session between
Retail Gift Card Association (RGCA) and
Incentive Gift Card Council (IGCC), of which we are members of both. The IGCC
stated, “Both associations share goals in promoting best practices and helping the industry grow and believe collaborating on the topic of B2B will create a powerful learning opportunity and one that will eliminate redundancy and streamline our message between groups.” Let the collaborations begin!
Digital Gift Cards Pave Way for A Seamless Future
Digital gift cards are combining the traditional uses of gift cards as currency among gifters and gift receivers, and the cutting edge technology of mobile payments. As mobile payments and mobile wallets because more common at retailer POS, employers can begin to think of digital gift cards as easier solutions to employee reward, health and wellness and safety programs. Here are three reasons digital gift cards are the wave of the gift card future: