Tony Brennan, Director at Card Commerce recently teamed up with partner, ActSmart in October 2010 to deliver a gift card presentation to cycle retailers at the Cycle Show in Earls Court, London. In it, he outlined the background to gift card, the benefits of gift cards to retailer and customer; and what to look out for when choosing a gift card partner.
2. Topics to be covered What’s all the fuss about? Why do your customers want them? The business case for the retailer Running a successful Prepaid Programme – Top tips Think beyond gift cards Points to consider when selecting a Gift Card Partner Questions & Answers
3. What is all the fuss about? Its a significant part of the market: UK Gift card and voucher marketplace worth £4bn in 2009 There were 500 programmes in place Accounts for 1.5% of all retail spend Practically all Tier 1 retailers now operate gift card programmes Gift Cards now represent 55% of all Gift Value sold Expected to peak at 90% Card and voucher sales in Q2 2010 have shown their sharpest growth ever recorded B2B sales up by 20% Consumer sales up by 24% Leisure category up by 11% Retailers category up by 20% Gift card malls up by 70%
4. Why do customers want them? 77% of recipients expressed a positive or better experience with gift cards (only 3% expressed dissatisfaction) 43% preferred cards compared to 27% the previous year (just 12% of consumers now prefer paper vouchers) 90% approve of getting gift cards from their employer (was 70%) 50% increase in the number of people preferring card rewards to cash rewards 81% of recipients spend more than face value on card 49% of gift card recipients make more visits to the store/retailer afterwards
7. Running a successful Prepaid Programme – Top Tips Make it all about the customer – understand what they want and give it to them Talk about the recipient and not about convenience Draw customers’ attention to your gift card offer – satisfy planned and impulse purchases Your brand is key – present a pretty picture Make it Christmas all year round Keep up to speed with industry prepaid trends and ideas – the US is 10 years ahead Broaden your horizon in terms of distribution and non-gift usage of cards
8. Think beyond Gift Cards Refund Card Savings Card Gift Card Christmas Club Gift Card Holiday Club Purchase Card Promotions Card Trade-In Card Rewards Card Loyalty Card Gift Card
9. Points to consider when selecting a Gift Card Partner Scalability of solution on offer Simple Point of Sales interface Quality of card and carriers Sales and service channels supported Functionality beyond Gift – personalisation, rewards, multi-wallets User configuration and management Programme reporting Time / location analysis Transaction analysis Reconciliation process and accounting support Fraud & Risk reporting Expiry date management Bulk load activity support Customer self service support Support for programme marketing and enhancement
10. Q&A Tony Brennan Card Commerce tbrennan@card-commerce.com t : 0870 735 2829 (UK) t : 01 617 7980 (Ire)