GiftCard Partners Blog

Saying this time of year is busy is an understatement. While it's easy to get wrapped up in the decorations, music, food and everything else that comes with the holiday season, it's also an important time of year to reflect on what we can do for others. This can mean volunteering your time at a food kitchen, helping collect gifts for needing families, or simply making a financial donation. But before you take out that check book it's important to note the growing trend towards gift cards this holiday season. Many nonprofits are recommending donors give gift cards instead of the standard canned foods or teddy bears so that families are then able to go make the purchases for food or gifts themselves. See how these organization are making a difference in peoples lives with gift cards during the holidays:

The top three challenges Human Resources departments across America face right now are employee turnover, employee engagement, and succession planning. All three present interesting challenges, but can be overcome if HR leaders take on the challenges with creative solutions. Let’s take a look at how HR departments can change their views on these issues to ease concerns in the new year. Consider these three New Year’s resolutions from your HR department in 2016:

The holidays are rapidly approaching and we have the latest in shopping and holiday gift card trends for this season!

According to the National Retail Federation’s Holiday Consumer Spending Survey, consumers will spend an average of $805.65 on food, decorations, gifts, and more this holiday season, the highest amount in the survey’s 15-year history! Top findings of consumers surveyed showed:

The holiday shopping season is already here and we thought it would be helpful to show how to incorporate gift cards, the most popular gift for both consumers and B2B organizations, into your holiday strategy. Here are 3 ways to incorporate gift cards into your holiday program.

The National Retail Federation has announced that this holiday season, if all goes according to plan, spending on gift cards will break all previous records.
NRF predicts gift card spending will reach $31.74 billion, up 83% since gift card spending tracking began in 2003. What does this mean? It's simple. Gift cards are the perfect gift. They are easy for the giver, they are guaranteed to please the receiver, and the price is set. It fits the budget, and is easy. Could any holiday-shopping-crazed consumer ask for anything else? We don't think so either. The important thing to remember is that gift cards work for everyone. This means not just your friends and family, but anyone else you might need to give gifts too. Providing small gifts to employees at the end of the year is a great way to say thanks. It's a small act of appreciation. It could be as simple as giving them a gift to a
grocer to help curb the cost of their Thanksgiving or holiday dinner. So, as everything starts to get crazy later this week, with presents and decorations and wrapping paper, keep it simple and everyone will be happy.