GiftCard Partners Blog

According to a new survey from the Retail Gift Card Association, up to 70% of consumers will buy gift cards for friends and family by the end of the summer. This is an important finding for B2B gift card programs as well. Why's that? Because the survey also revealed that 95% of consumers are hoping to
receive gift cards this spring and summer. While this directly applies to celebrations like birthdays, graduations and weddings, the popularity of gift cards can also segue to employees recognition programs, health and wellness programs and employees rewards. Here are key findings from the study:

The third-party gift card segment has consistently been one of the fastest growing gift card distribution channels for the last seven years. Third-party can easily be your largest sales channel outside of your own stores. Actively engaging in third-party sales can increase your brand footprint, reaching consumers that may have not known about your brand otherwise. Having ongoing, frequent dialogue with your third-party aggregator is key to understanding what exactly their retail partners are doing to drive your gift card sales. The aggregators provide you with access to your sales, but do you know why your sales may be trending up or down? Ensuring that your third-party gift cards are properly merchandised and in stock is one of the most critical components to why your sales may be trending positively or negatively. If your gift card is not available when a customer wants to buy it, you have a lost a sale and a visit to your establishment. Here is a list of additional questions to consider when analyzing your third-party program:

Wearable technology is gaining popularity in the consumer market and has the potential to transform the way employers structure their employee health and wellness initiatives. The transformation will have an effect on the price tag of these initiatives, but the direct effect of incorporating wearable technology will ease the time it takes for employers to track employee wellness activity. 

86% of digital marketers agree that investing in implementation of omnichannel strategies outweighs the challenges. The outcomes can yield a great success story, but the challenges are many. Supply chain management, product availability, and now payments and gifting are all components of the customer experience that need to remain consistent across both online and in-store buying experiences. However, as retail marketers look for new innovative solutions to omnichannel adoption there may be one sitting right in front of them, ready to go. Digital gift cards can't solve all of the omnichannel questions but in terms of payments and gifting they offer an already packaged solution. Digital gift cards are flexible by design, making sending, delivery and redemption easier for the gift giver, the gift receiver and the retailer administering the card. The flexibility and ease of use of digital gift cards helps accelerate

The secondary gift card market is a delicate topic in the gift card industry. It's sort of like a dirty little secret that’s extremely helpful for consumers. In this market, consumers can recycle, regift or exchange their unwanted or unused gift cards for something that is of more use to them. It's a free market, or markets and with the access to internet today these exchange sites are literally at consumers' fingertips. While this new market may leave unwanted gift card holders jumping for joy, retailers are as thrilled. Secondary gift card markets can be seen as devaluing retail brands. These markets essentially allow consumers to trade in one brand for another, making the currency that was previously brand specific, brand agnostic. Currency no longer gets funneled into a retailer's business, but rather commoditized on the open market. Diane Freeland, GiftCard Partners' VP of Client Relations, comments on the commoditization of the secondary gift card market stating, "These secondary marketplaces offer consumers the opportunity to trade unwanted gift cards that they were received as a gift at a less than face value for the cards they are trading." Selling a retailer's brand for less than face value can have unforeseen consequences that only time will tell. Secondary gift card markets are a sensitive subject in the gift card industry, and it is certainly something we will keep an eye on. Check back to this space for more information on this subject as we track the industry’s response.