GiftCard Partners Blog

It should be of no surprise that mobile payment was a choice topic at this year’s Prepaid Expo, but as purveyors of the B2B portion of retail sales; how will we get to mobile payment? Retailers and merchants are living (or about to live) the latest technology and game changing concepts about the consumer waving their mobile device to pay. But the B2B portion of the market still has major issues to overcome. The questions that the Prepaid Expo asks ring loud in order to capture consumers and also ring true for your B2B customers and subsequent end-consumers: What will be frictionless in your environment? What will bring the greatest value? What will be the best authentication? What's the best way to reduce cost? How do you make prepaid product more relevant and valuable to cardholder before, during, after the payment transaction? Interesting quote from Bill Gates about the future: "We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten."--Bill Gates Mobile buying is inevitable, but are you considering B2B gift card sales in your mobile prepaid strategy? If not, when will you shape your change? Read up on the
Prepaid Expo’s Live from Prepaid Expo: The Future of Prepaid & Mobile

Are you a retailer or merchant looking for the latest information on FinCEN’s final rule? Wayne Chatham, CEO of Card Compliant will be educating retailers, restaurants, merchants, and other card issuers on potential compliance solutions and exemptions to FinCEN’s requirements via a 1 hour webinar on February 29, 2012 at 1pm CT. “We are especially interested in having retailers and restaurants participate in the webinar as this may be the first time many have faced compliance issues generated by FinCEN,” states Chuck Rouse, Card Compliant’s Chairman.  “Among other topics, we will address FinCEN, the FinCEN rule on prepaid access, the closed-loop exemption to the rule, the $2,000 closed-loop value requirement, and the $10,000 seller requirement.” Join in on this learning and sharing session and register for the webinar at no cost: 
Are Your Pre-paid, Closed Loop Gift Cards FinCEN Compliant?  http://www.cardcompliant.com/FinCENwebinar.aspx

Many retailers and merchants decide to go it alone when it comes to creating or updating their customer loyalty program. But those who have an existing loyalty program still need to ensure it remains fresh and offers the best of what customers are expecting. Truly, you should be thinking about going beyond basic loyalty, to gain loyal customer and brand advocates. Here are some simple steps to take to update your program…and keep those customers coming back.

We have written about and highlighted articles on the topic of tablet eCommerce and why they are becoming significant to retail marketing strategies, mostly from the perspective of prompting more retailers and merchants to accept gift cards online. This past Fall, eMarketer Digital Intelligence predicted that by 2014, 1 in 3 customers would use a tablet to make their online purchases. Tablet users will increase, and 1/3 of them will purchase online, whether or not they have ever made online purchases before. But even more importantly, Forrester Research reported that the purchase conversion rate for shoppers using a traditional PC is 3% and 4% or 5% for shoppers using tablets. So, retailers could see an increased lift, simply by the consumers’ choice of online tools. That speaks to the need for retailers to capture those new tablet users as customers. Are you ready for this? If a gift card holder goes online to purchase with their shiny new tablet; will they be turned away by your website? Will they ever come back? That’s just 1 piece of the tablet pie. Now, tablets aren’t just in the laptop bag or on the desk …they are IN stores, provided by the store! If retailers offer this intriguing, cutting edge technology in stores, more consumers will be introduced to them and begin to feel comfortable with them, and perhaps become more likely to use their tablet at home to make online purchases…This is in-store marketing GENIUS! In the recent Retail TouchPoints article
5 Ways to Use Tablets For In-store Commerce, we see a plethora of customer friendly tablets are being used in-store by retailers and merchants. “Tablets are here to stay; retailers need to embrace them and strongly consider how they can be used in stores to enhance brand experiences and build brand loyalty.” “Though many retailers are adopting this in-store technology, they’re just starting to scratch the surface of its potential. There are many ways retailers can use tablets to transform the in-store experience.” Says Gary Lombardo, Multichannel, Mobile & Social Commerce Product Marketing Lead, Demandware in the
Retail TouchPoints article. We are excited about these technologies and how retailers and merchants will integrate their gift card programs with their online sales efforts. What other cool ways have you seen tablets used in stores?

Retail TouchPoints (RTP) is an excellent source for retail executives to stay apprised of insightful content around the latest in customer-facing technologies and the development of critical customer loyalty strategies to compete in today’s retail environment. In RTP’s
Top 20 Articles of 2011; they outline top 20 most viewed articles of last year and review the top trends across those most read stories. They noted that the majority of the most viewed articles were case studies with success stories from leading retailers, highlighting that “retail executives are looking to learn from their peers….two of the hot-button topics in 2011 were mobile technology and social commerce.” I hesitate to simply lead you to the list. First, I must note that the top article is
10 Innovative Solutions In The First Annual Next-Gen Retail Awards Report; an important composition of innovative solutions highlighted at the 2011 National Retail Federation (NRF) Annual Convention. The innovations profiled in the report included 10 categories like: social media; in-store marketing; inventory management; store intelligence; mobile technology; customer engagement; POS, and cross-channel. “In a challenging economy retailers are struggling to turn shoppers into brand advocates. With that in mind, customer loyalty was a hot topic in 2011.” Visit the full list of Top 20 Retail TouchPoints articles and you can also access the actual articles, insights, case studies and more to start your own innovative approaches.