Gift Cards are more than a method of payment, they are powerful revenue generators and one of the strongest marketing, loyalty incentive, and customer service tools at your disposal. A large proportion of recipients are first time customers, so gift cards are strong customer acquisition tools. And more importantly, a majority of gift card recipients spend more than the face value of the card. Gift cards are part of everyday life for many retailers and can generate substantial profit. Gift card purchases are often an impulse buy, so if you don’t have a program, you are missing out on potential business. There are many benefits that a well marketed gift card program can deliver.
Impulse sales mean additional revenue from transactions. Making gift cards highly visible and easily accessible improves your chances of incremental sales. A small counter footprint beside the checkout can deliver you thousands in sales! Offering gift cards also provides a real service to your customers. But possibly the best return comes from gift card redemptions. Recipients are often new customers to your store, and as a bonus will typically spend over 50% more than the original value of their gift card! The cash is in your bank. Gift card sales revenue is a prepaid future sale. Gift cards have many other uses, from managing refunds to marketing promotions to incentives and rewards. Apart from the staggering growth in consumer demand for gift cards, the corporate market is also growing rapidly.
The difference between gift and pre-pay cards is becoming very blurred. Historically gift cards were one-time load, whereas prepaid cards were fully reloadable. However, today many gift cards are offered as reloadable and in fact, recent research in the UK and US has shown that over 20% of gift cards are purchased for self-use. Click here to read our article on this emerging but critically important trend headlined as 'Budget Tamers'.
More recently gift cards have evolved even further serving as a ‘stepping stone’ to customer loyalty programs, and with reload functionality, gift cards can perform the double function of accumulating rewards and acting as a method of payment.
Tranxactor offers a comprehensive and proven solution for any type of gift or prepaid program backed by a solid robust processing platform. Physical or digital, one-time or reloadable, minimum and maximum load values, flexible expiry – you set the rules, Tranxactor will deliver the solution.
Check out some of the features and functions of Tranxactor’s platform:
- In-store sale of cards
- Out of store sale of cards
- In-store or online redemption
- Reload or recharge capability
- Real-time authorisation and transaction processing
- Optional cardholder registration
- Online reporting (including fraud detection)
- APIs for integration with existing environments
- Combine with vouchers, coupons and other promotions
- Full integration with your POS
- With card or cardless
- Mobile ready complete gift solution
- Use traditional plastic cards, barcodes, RFID or digital
- Settlement of payment accounts
- Perfect for franchise or corporate store environment
- Bulk purchasing
- Delayed activation
- Card security – PIN or Customer Security Code (CSC)
- Increased security and fraud reduction
- Online customer portal to check balances and redemptions
- Part of a fully integrated loyalty and CRM program
Perfect Solution for Franchise Groups
Tranxactor offers a proven model for franchise organisations wanting to introduce a ‘closed-loop’ gift card programme to their network. Tranxactor provides full end to end financial settlement between franchise group members, enabling the sale gift cards from one outlet and the redemption at one or more other outlets, with full reconciliation and online reporting, plus daily automated liability reporting.
Tranxactor’s payment services include:
- Gift card programs
- Stored value programs
- Gift-to-Loyalty
- Loyalty+Prepay
- Special purpose savings clubs
