GiftCard Partners Blog

Retailers' preparation for the holiday shopping season is now in full swing, and as retailers look for last minute ways to boost their year end revenue; gift marketing becomes a very effective option.  Gift marketing uses gift cards as a device for loyalty and rewards. Giving bonus gift cards to shoppers for spending a certain amount turns a gift card from a one-transaction device into a revenue boosting loyalty device that keeps shoppers coming back. It shows appreciation and gives the essential value-added incentive that shoppers look for as they shell out their holiday gift spending.

Are you prepared for total immersion into e-tail? Facts to consider if your answer is NO:

“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!

Although our industry trend reports are typically focused on B2B gift card topics and industry events; we thought that “Turning Negativity into Engagement" is a particularly important topic as our clients and customers enter into an uncertain holiday season. At this year’s MoShow we were reminded of some valuable lessons in listening and reacting. We’re happy to share with you a presentation around embracing technology to
listen to your customers, to bring your brand and brand programs closer to enlightenment. Are you willing to accept social media and online networks as listening tools, to assess your customers’ opinions and react? Many believe that adopting these technologies could back-fire on a brand in an all-too-public forum. But consider that negative conversations about your brand are happening online, whether you are present or not…how you listen and address them could be the difference between a proactive leader and a tarnished reputation. Some really great advice and answers to these nagging concerns come to us in a presentation given at the MoShow’s Incentive Gift Card Council (IGCC) meeting. This presentation, by Mike McDonnell, Vice President, Product Management & Client Solutions at
Affinion Loyalty Group, offers fresh perspectives and real-world examples of how to turn negativity into opportunities for engagement in
The Bright Side of Negative Engagement. This presentation will help you determine a critical response to a negative customer experience and help you answer the important question,”What’s Your White Chocolate Mickey?”
Click here to read the rest of GCP’s Industry Trend Report  

eGift and mobile gift cards are a popular topic as excitement grows around digital technologies. CreditCards.com reports that one half of the major gift card brands that offer eGift cards only started offering them this year. Retailers and merchants are ramping up to take advantage of growing mobile and tablet buying segments, as they are quickly becoming some of the most valuable online shoppers. Interestingly, when GCP recently surveyed B2B gift card buyers; we found that the B2B market still prefers to purchase physical plastic cards over