GiftCard Partners Blog

Next week at the Incentive Marketing Association Annual Summit look for GiftCard Partners' Cheif Operating Officer Deb Merkin to moderate a panel entitled: "Challenges of Moving Bulk eCerts/mCerts Through the Distribution Pipeline."  The session will discuss the challenges and benefits of eCert and mCert technology and how they can and are expanding the incentive gift card market.  Deb will be moderating a panel of industry experts in discussion on this cutting edge topic.  The session will take place on Tuesday August 9th from 1:45 until 2:45.  
For more information check out the IMA Summit schedule here.  

It’s always good news to hear that the reward you are presenting to your employees or loyalty program participants is still the strong choice. A new study released by First Data called “Consumer Insights Gift Card Survey Results”, announced that “prepaid gift cards are still a popular choice for gifts in the United States”. This is good news for those purchasing gift cards in bulk as you know you are making a good choice. Other indications that gift cards remain a strong trend in the B2B market is the study’s conclusion that more consumers are reloading their gift cards. This means that consumers (your employees and rewards participants) are loyal to their cards, be-it a physical plastic card, eCert (virtual gift card) or mCert (mobile gift card). It’s also nice to know that by participating in the B2B gift card market, we are infusing the economy with additional shopping dollars. Consumers are inclined to stand by the gift card and reload it, which increases sales opportunities for retailers. The First Data study also announced that “35% of those who reloaded closed-loop gift cards said they visited the store more often, and 20% said they spent more money during each visit”. All good news for our economy, but re-loadable and technology based gift cards are also great for our environment.
Check out our Are Gift Cards Going Green? Blog. The full study is available at
First Data’s website.

This post might look familiar to you; we've added an update further down the page. Wikipedia outlines a “Virtual Wallet” as a hybrid checking/savings account with 3 components: a "Spend" account (checking), a "Reserve" account (backup checking, incurs interest), and a"Growth" account (savings). This is a pretty narrow view of a virtual wallet (note to self, update Wikipedia). Virtual wallets are cropping up not just from banks for online banking; they are being offered by credit card companies, SmartPhone providers, and there are even free versions that stores, manages, and organizes digital versions of store membership cards, coupons, loyalty cards, virtual gift cards, or any other piece of information that you store in your traditional wallet. Windows even offers a PC software version of a virtual wallet, but it’s more focused on protecting all those passwords, account numbers, and access codes vs. making purchases and using your loyalty rewards points or gift cards.
GiftCard Partners feels the Virtual Wallet that will not only change our way of shopping, paying, and redeeming, but will also combine the best of the above types and allow us to:

Mobile technology is heating up, especially within the gift card industry. GiftCard Partners' marketing team outlines how mobile technology integrates gift cards into our always on the go, mobile lifestyles.

GCP's Diane Freeland is quoted in today's Business Wire release:
CashStar Introduces Enhanced B2B Digital Gifting Suite Mobile gift cards and eCerts are the hottest topic in gift cards, but combining technology with B2B applications is where it's at for GiftCard Partners.

CashStar, the digital gifting and incentives company, announced new enhancements to its suite of B2B digital gifting solutions. Composed of the eCorporate Application Programming Interface™ (API) and eCorporate Direct™, the suite provides an easy way for retailers to manage and distribute their bulk e-gifting programs based on their needs and preferences.
Click t o read the full article here