Best Practices for Small Business Gift Cards

With Small Business Saturday and the holiday retail season approaching, there is no better time to add gift cards and e-gift cards to your sales arsenal. Accepting gift card payments can mean great profitability for your small business, because there are two sales tied to each gift card transaction (one for the giver and one for the receiver) and there is an opportunity to simultaneously reward loyal customers while bringing in brand new ones.

These in-demand payment options are profit gold mines. Research has shown that:

• 55% of gift card recipients require more than one trip to spend the balance of their gift cards.
• 65% of gift cardholders spend more than the value of their gift card. The overspending average is around 38%.
• Over $100 billion is spent on gift cards annually

The only way to get all the benefits of gift cards for small businesses is to couple great merchandise and services with technology, marketing and excellent customer service. Without this trifecta, it really won’t matter what you’re selling. Here are a few best practices to help your small business get a slice of the pie:

• Ensure that your POS system is enabled to receive gift cards as payment.
• If you are considering e-gift cards, build – or have built – a landing page on your business’s website with a clear call to action.
• Beef up your email campaigns by using compelling subject lines that include your company name and the gift card sender’s name.
• Display your gift cards at the register and upsell them with a spending reward threshold (for every $75 transaction you get a $10 gift card).
• Consider offering gift cards with no expiration date. Anticipate promotions for over stock or underselling items for which gift cards can be redeemed.
• Keep well stocked trinkets that are just over the value of low balance amounts for the ultimate upsell.
• Have the best customer service, ever.