GiftCard Partners Blog

Your Scrip purchase decision makers use a wide variety of gift card brands for their participants. Whether they are fundraising or using gift cards for budgeting purposes; they want brands that they shop for on a regular basis. Here are the top 10 reasons why The Children's Place (TCP) is a perfect Scrip choice.

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.

Prepaid and gift cards sales are amplified with new activity as technology paves the way to better than expected growth. Mercator Advisory Group recently reported that all segments of closed-loop prepaid exceeded their previous forecasts for 2010. In-store gift cards were forecasted at 4% growth for 2010, but total load volume hit $84.6 billion, up 10% from $76.9 in 2009. The B2B gift card market realizes much of this growth via gift card categories like digital-content (online games and social networking credit) and prepaid mobile; gift cards received more loads for these digital-content activities. Retailers are also doing a better job of integrating their gift cards with loyalty programs and other consumer promotions, which catches the attention of potential incentive and rewards buyers. “Loads on employee and partner incentive closed-loop cards increased 10% and loads on consumer-incentive cards also grew 10%”, states Digital Transactions in their Mercator report overview:
Buoyed by Gift Cards, Closed-Loop Prepaid Grew Faster Than Expected in 2010 “On the whole, what we’re seeing is even the closed-loop market is showing some resilience in the face of the economy,” Jackson says. Consumers seem to be recognizing the true value of their gift cards, and “many retailers are doing a better job of integrating their gift cards with loyalty programs and other promotions, Jackson says. “They’re realizing that gift cards are not just a plastic version of paper gift certificates,” he says. Source:
Digital Transactions: Buoyed by Gift Cards, Closed-Loop Prepaid Grew Faster Than Expected in 2010
 

Every once in a while I’ve got to blog a gift card feel-good story. In Indiana, the Worth County Development Authority is offering students in the county a $75.00 gift card to help with pricey back to school expenses. The non-profit organization is donating more than 1,300 gift cards, that’s more than $100,000 worth. Back to school can be a stressful and expensive time for families; it’s nice to see this creative use of gift cards. Watch the video below:  

Health Risk Assessments (HRAs) have long been part of corporate wellness programs, but their value is now under greater scrutiny. With HR departments under pressure to maximize every wellness dollar, the real question isn’t whether HRAs are outdated; it’s whether they’re being used effectively.