GiftCard Partners Blog

The Amazon Dash button was so disruptive in concept that people thought it might be an early April fools prank on launch day, March 31st. The concept seemed so futuristic that it couldn't have been real. The main reason? Americans don't buy groceries online. In a world where omni-channel shopping is everywhere, groceries still remain are one of the biggest spending categories and one of the only categories almost exclusively available in-store. Some grocery stores, like Whole Foods Market, are piloting programs to make online groceries a possibility with delivery to consumers' homes part of the package. The concept is considered disruptive to the market, however, and since the concept is so new, adoption has been slow. Here are three ways that Amazon Dash could cause the biggest grocery disruption yet.

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

Mobile is up and coming in the quest to define the omni-channel shopper who shops across devices and digital channels and the omni-channel customer experience. While retailers continue the quest to meet customers in all of the channels and on all of the devices they shop, mobile has prevailed as possibly the most critical of both channels and devices. Mobile feeds into both in-store and e-commerce customer interaction and customer service, which puts mobile in a unique and critically important position. 
According to a new EConsultancy survey, only 50% of retailers believe they have a solid understanding of the mobile user experience. That means half of American retailers are looking to understand the mobile solution and the role it plays in customer-brand interaction. One of the most important components of the mobile question and the role it plays in the omni-channel shopping experience is
customer service. Mobile happens in real-time, as does customer service. It gives consumers the real-time gratification that can be the difference between great customer service and the negative customer experience that can cause retailers to lose customers. Take the plunge into omni-channel shopping through mobile customer service. With
53% of retailers planning to build a unified commerce platform in the next few years, your customer experience and customer service can’t afford to fall behind. It will accelerate your brand's customer focus and create 1:1 marketing opportunities by gaining insight into consumer behavior.

Online purchasing and mobile apps have been a go-to in our lives both personally and professionally, and this trend is growing in the gift card world as well.  Purchasing online gift cards are becoming the industry standard. According to First Data's 2014 Consumer Insights
survey, in comparison to 2013, more people chose online gift card purchasing.  Purchasing online gift cards increased to 34% in 2014 – up from 26% in 2013.  The purchase of gift cards using social networks, such as Facebook, increased from 8% in 2013 to 13% in 2014.  Both plastic and e-gift cards can be purchased online.  Overall, 81% of respondents planned on purchasing the same or more plastic gift cards than in 2013 and 84% planned on purchasing the same or more e-gift cards than in 2013. Gift card apps came to the forefront in 2014.  55% of consumers are interested in using an app to store gift card information on their mobile devices and 58% of consumers said they would prefer to use one app to store multiple merchants instead of using separate apps for each.  With more than 13% of gift card purchases in 2014 made through the use of a mobile app, mobile apps are becoming mandatory for a successful gift card strategy. For more insight into the First Data Consumer Insights Survey
click here!