GiftCard Partners Blog

Loyalty programs are an important channel for GCP to sell our gift cards into, so we thought our loyalty companies (clients) as well as our retailer audience would find this article interesting and educational. It outlines an interesting argument for integrating a holistic approach to the business, which includes loyalty, resulting in a cohesive customer experience. As a consumer, I have received offers that exclude me because I am already a loyalty member…a classic show of “the disconnect that customers feel (that) is the result of the siloed approach to loyalty programs…” Read on @ Retail Customer Experience:
Beyond a loyalty program: Using loyalty data to create a unified strategy    

With all the hub bub about prepaid technologies like mobile wallets, mCerts and virtual gift cards, Ben Jackson from Mercator Advisory Group, offers us his calming and factual perspective in
“The future form of closed-loop gift cards – Reports of plastic’s demise are greatly exaggerated”. Ben examines 3 great lessons of history to temper the overstated destiny of plastic gift cards and advises “that new technologies do not always completely distance old ones”. The history lessons offer great perspective that “There will always be a place for plastic, but (the) day will soon arrive where virtual cards and mobile cards will be a necessary part of every issuer’s prepaid strategy. The task for issuers is to figure out what needs each form factor fills and tailor their program to make each work towards the best results”, states Jackson. This is great advice for issuers, retailers and merchants as they look to grow their businesses with diversity versus alienating parties via the next big technology. Source:
Payments Journal, Mercator Perspectives      

In last quarter’s
Industry Trend Report, GiftCard Partners published an article:
Are you an online retailer ...or Not?, where we investigated which of the Top 50 Retailers are accepting gift cards as payment online. We discussed the potential missed opportunities for retailers who are not taking full advantage of the online channel and getting in touch with their gift card e-retail side, especially as mobile technology gains importance in consumers’ buying choices. On September 29th, Loyalty 360 will be holding a webinar on just this topic.
Expanding Your Program’s Reach in the Complex World of E-Commerce; they will examine the role of traditional
loyalty programs in the rapidly expanding world of online commerce and the industry players that are shaping loyalty in online commerce.
Click here for the webinar overview and to register.          

The Prepaid Press recently published
Employers Find Ways to Say ‘Thank You’ to Employees; Prepaid cards Increasing as Incentive of Choice which highlighted Young America’s recent research regarding prepaid cards (such as gift cards) gaining even more popularity amongst corporate HR incentive programs. With company-wide salary freezes and abandoned bonuses, employers are struggling more than ever to retain their best employees. “…employers who want to retain their best employees admit they have fewer resources to do so, and many are turning to structured incentive programs, which cost less than salary increases and often result in high levels of employee productivity, positive feedback and loyalty," said Joe Custer, president of Young America. A few highlights of the survey findings:

This article was brought to our attention by GCP’s co-founder, Ed Shulkin (thank you Ed!).  It’s enlightening and heartening to know that there are companies out there that, like GCP, are striving for a complete balance of work-life. This article outlines the importance of promoting 5 factors of well-being into the workplace lives: career, social, financial, physical and community well-being. BUT, the true gems of this article are in the depth of the interviews and stories of how these factors are integrated into the cultures of companies like Zappos.