GiftCard Partners Blog

Gift cards have become a versatile and appreciated choice for holiday gifting in the workplace. They provide a hassle-free way to say thank you and can cater to diverse preferences. Here are five innovative ways to use gift cards in your workplace during the holidays, benefiting employees, customers, co-workers, and even your company's philanthropic efforts.

With the holiday shopping season fast approaching retailers are preparing for big revenues and high traffic in stores. Preventing gift card fraud is a great way to ensure revenue is retained and retailers don't take a hit to their Q4 numbers because of consumer fraud. According to a recent survey by NRF 78% of retailers have been victims of gift card fraud. Here are 3 ways to prevent gift card fraud this season
1. Keep an Eye on Gift-Card Racks: Keep gift cards in an area where store clerks and floor attendants can see them. Protecting gift card numbers from view and keeping racks in plain sight will help prevent consumers from stealing cards or gift card numbers.
2. Raise a Red Flag for Zero Balance Complaints: Employees can replace customer gift cards with zero balance cards behind the register. If you receive a number of zero balance complaints from a single store it may be time to closely monitor staff.
4. Compare Number of Gift Cards Activated with the Number Sold: Doing simple comparisons of number of gift cards sold with the number activated can help you stop any issues you may have during the short 25 day shopping season. Catching a fraud issue as it's happening rather than finding out about it later is always a better strategy.
For more information on preventing gift card fraud this holiday season check out this article from Entrepreneur.com.

As the holiday season approaches and the holiday shopping season descends consumers are spending more than they have in recent memory, but they are still looking to save and add value whenever possible. Adding a loyalty program for your consumers, your employees, or both can add measurable value to your business. Adding a loyalty program for consumers will keep them coming back throughout the holiday season, and an employee loyalty program will keep employees satisfied and motivated during a busy time of year. Loyalty programs can take a variety of forms, from a points system in which consumers or employees can accrue points over time based on purchases or a job well done respectively,  to a rewards based system where consumers or employees receive rewards, such as gift cards, for these same behaviors. According to Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty360, "From a data/analytics/insight perspective, the generic branded, especially the reloadable cards are more important [for brands] and you glean more insight into the interests of the consumer." Johnson goes on to note that the ease of use gift cards provide to both consumers and employees makes them very valuable in the context of loyalty programs. During the holiday season as people become busy and very budget conscious, gift cards help ease the burden on necessities such as clothing from
The Limited or
The Children's Place, or gifts for others from retailers such as
1-800-Flowers. The flexibility of gift cards offers employees and consumers the flexibility to use the loyalty rewards gifted to them on gifts for others.  
For more information on gift cards as loyalty rewards check out this article from BizReport.

“After years of recession-fueled frugality, more Americans are feeling the holiday gift-giving spirit in 2011”, says a recent USAA survey. Has your company’s holiday giving increased this year? Budgeting was likely done a year ago, but are you spending more for employee and customer gifts due to better times or do you fall in the “budget glue” category? Have you thought of
gift cards as budget glue? You can literally stick to the dollar of your company gift giving budget with flexible denominations, while giving the gift that people really want – choice!

Even though it is not yet Halloween financial analysts and retail experts are already working to predict holiday spending.  With an unstable economy and uncertain times ahead most shoppers will be keeping tight budgets, and not making extravagant purchases.  According to a recent Accenture survey "One quarter of shoppers (24 percent) plan to have a 'thrifty' holiday season and one in five (18 percent) admit that they will be 'focused on necessities', just 6 percent admit to planning 'extravagant' or 'unrestrained' holiday spending." In this type of market, where consumers are being conservative with their holiday budgets gift givers want to ensure that they give "targeted" gifts.  These are gifts where the givers' dollar is stretched and the giver is sure the receiver is going to use and enjoy the gift.  Gift cards are great examples of "targeted" gifts, they are meaningful, and guaranteed to be enjoyed.  Allowing a friend or employee to enjoy dinner with their family, or to splurge on a new outfit is a win/win; a low risk purchase for the giver and a high reward for the receiver. With 43% of survey respondents claiming that they have less income than last year, and historic economic swings, it is going to be a year of low risk gift purchases. Remember the value of gift cards as you make your holiday purchases this year, whether it be for your friends, or employees.  
For more information on the recent Accenture survey click here.