GiftCard Partners Blog

Boston Market has their biggest sales day of the year on Thanksgiving Day. They serve over one million people in that one day alone. That’s 400% more customers than usual. And now with more and more retailers opening on Thanksgiving Day, Boston Market is becoming the go to option for retailers to treat their employees that have to work the holiday. But Thanksgiving Day isn’t the only growth the restaurant chain has experienced. People are shifting away from fatty foods and have developed more of an interest in healthier menu items, such as rotisserie chicken. For Boston Market this shift has increased their sales by over 25% in the last few years. Boston Market is looking to expand in both the U.S., opening 12-15 more restaurants in 2015, and a possible international expansion in the Middle East.
 View the recent interview with Boston Market CEO, George Michel here. Boston Market has been serving up fresh, home-style meals and high quality sides since 1985. With more than 490 restaurants from coast to coast, Boston Market is also one of the largest providers of catering services in the U.S. and provides same day ordering and delivery and you can even
order online! Boston Market is just one of the many fun gift card brands offered by
GiftCard Partners and fits into just about any incentive program.

Gift cards are versatile and make as good an employee reward as they do a sales driver to promote your brand.
First Data has released its 2014 Consumer Insights Survey, and it shows that gift cards can do as much for sales numbers as they can for motivating employees toward organizational goals. Here are two key components from the survey.

LoyaltyOne recently took a deep dive into incentive programs and what exactly attracted millennials to them. Their study found that the majority, falling into a range of 18-29 years old, identified in-store experience as a top factor when it came to joining grocery-store reward programs. These in-store experiences also seem to go hand-in-hand with health and nutrition.

Beacon technology has the potential to change the way we all shop. However, there is a "creepy" factor to knowing that stores are tracking your movements around their retail locations. So, some retailers are mixing a human element into beacon technology, and the results are surprisingly pleasant. Some retailers testing out beacons with messaging in either a native app or push messaging are using their employees as part of the beacon experience. Training employees on the beacon messaging and positioning employees in critical areas of the store allows employees to gain extra responsibility while improving the customer experience and removing the intrusive factor that beacons can present. Employee training on cutting edge technology provides professional development opportunities for your workforce and a unique chance for growth in the critical customer service area of your business. Offering small incentives like gift cards to employees who volunteer to step up and receive the training and take on extra responsibility is a great way to reinforce innovation at your organization. Think of beaconing as an opportunity to advance your workforce as well as advancing the technology in your stores. Head over to
MediaPost for more information.

In hoping to prove the value of whole grocery, Whole Foods Market is launching its first ad campaign this week. Crazy, right?