GiftCard Partners Blog

Raises matter. In fact, fair compensation is a baseline expectation for today’s workforce. But if you're relying solely on salary increases to drive satisfaction and retention, you're missing the mark and possibly missing opportunities to strengthen employee engagement in more meaningful ways.

The "Kicks for Guns" program in Central Florida, will be held from this weekend in order to get illegal and unwanted guns off the streets of the greater Orlando area.  No questions will be asked of anyone turning in a gun, and people who turn in guns will be rewarded with gift card options from select local retailers.  These types of buy-back programs are common in communities when local law enforcement is trying to rid the community of certain dangerous materials.  Another common buy back program is for old prescriptions.  Often in communities local law-enforcement will reward community members with a relevant gift card in exchange for their old prescriptions. This is a way for the community to come together to promote safety and unity, and indulge in the offered rewards. For more information on the
gun buy back in Orlando click here.  Have you seen any other buy-back programs? Where and what was the reward? Let us know by leaving a comment.

The workplace looks a lot different than it did just a few years ago. Employees are ambitious, financially stressed, and navigating new expectations around balance, technology, and growth. According to SurveyMonkey’s 2025 Workplace Culture and Trends report, the gaps between what employees want and what employers deliver are widening — but so are the opportunities to bridge them.

We know digital gift cards and incentives are popular, based on their ease of delivery and eco-friendly nature, while still providing the same flexibility of a tangible gift card.  But what we want to know is who is most likely to buy this new technology? Research conducted by Urban Wallace Associates and sponsored by CashStar provided the GCP team with some insight. In this eGift Card Buyer Study, they interviewed over 6,000 eCert users across a national sample. Here are some key findings: There are 3 different demographic shoppers: 1. Generous Gifter- This is primarily a mom who is responsible for all the family gifting. She works,is part of a two-income household, has children and is very busy. She is looking for an easy way to shop with a personal touch. Giving a gift card or eCert is easy. She spends approximately $35per gift. 2. Metro-Digital Shopper- A young urban professional who is busy, looking for instant gratification, and only shops on-line, via smart-phone or ipad, often on the go. The Metro-Digital Shopper is highly educated, tends to spend over $75 per gift card/eCert and purchases during peak times like lunch time and in the evening. 3. The Grateful Boss- ( This is the segment GCP was most excited about, as we had a little potential for B2B information!) This is typically a front-line manager who wants to provide instant gratification for a job well done. He/She is highly educated, makes over $100K a year, and 98% are married. They tend to purchase gift cards/ecerts an average of 5-7 times a year with an average value of $150- $200! They usually purchase during lunch time between 11 AM and 12PM. The Grateful Boss may have a secret budget for this program, purchase it out of his personal funds, or through a formal motivation program. But in any of these cases it is important to provide quick gratification for the employee and reinforce successful behaviors. The research also discussed that 85% of digital gift cards and incentives are incremental sales over plastic! Which begs the obvious question, why aren’t more retailers using eCerts? Let us know what you think about this by leaving us a comment!

This is an interesting topic for our clients (retailers) to follow. When we sell our merchant client’s gift cards into the B2B sector, our client’s wish that they could “know” who the gift card users are. The customer who selects a merchant gift card as reward for doing a great job or through their credit card loyalty program are in fact consumers and therefore, potential brand advocates, and incremental new customers of the future. The consumer who redeems for a gift card is one