GiftCard Partners Blog

Achieving customer loyalty is no doubt one of the biggest challenges our clients face…it’s a moving target. Not only are consumer needs evolving by the day, but retail marketing is impacted by new consumer technologies, for online and brick-and-mortar buying. We have a general picture of how technology is effecting our brand content flow, buying experience, and rewards and loyalty – we are consumers ourselves and we participate in one or all of these brand experiences every day. But how are these technologies effecting our clients? They are retailers and merchants who partner with us to promote their gift cards in programs such as customer loyalty, engagement, and rewards. They are on the front lines of technology evolution, retail marketing, and customer loyalty and engagement and their challenges are multiplied by selling in the B2B marketplace. Check out the
Ten Ways Technology Can Enable Customer Loyalty Infographic posted on the Huffington Post online. Click image to enlarge >>

The GiftCard Partners team is in Denver, Colorado this week to attend the
2013 Incentive Marketing Association (IMA) Summit. GCP joins a large number of other companies that are also part of the IMA, and make up this $46 billion incentive industry. We’re excited to meet, share and learn about the latest in this booming field over the course of the next few days. One of the many sessions the IMA will be holding is
Game Mechanics and the Future of Reward and Recognition Programs. The team is excited to learn more about Gamification and how this popular tool in reward and recognition programs has taken off and what the future holds for it in modern business. As it stands now, according to a recent IRF poll, more than 60% of recognition program owners have started implementing gamification. The session will highlight:

Lots of info has trickled out of last week’s Motivation Show in Chicago, a conference and tradeshow dedicated to informing and educating on the latest loyalty techniques and employee motivation tools. Gift cards have long been a strong motivation contender, and now, in a preview of a new
Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) study; gift cards are found to be worth a total $22.7 billion in the U.S. alone and this doesn't include Third Party or Scrip sales.  “Of that $22.7 billion, $8.5 billion is spent on sales incentive programs, $7.3 billion is spent on employee recognition programs, $5.2 billion is allocated for customer incentives, and $1.7 billion is spent on channel sales programs”, says the IRF. Who’s buying gift cards in this market segment? The full IRF study isn’t available yet, but preview information can be found on
Incentive Magazine’s website.

Since gift cards are given as gifts, incentives and employee rewards, they are often thought of by retailers and merchants as a customer acquisition tool. Let’s say a customer doesn’t shop at a particular retailer or merchant often or at all. Yet a family member, friend or employer gives a particular brand based on it meshing well with the recipients’ needs. This gift card now becomes a new customer acquisition tool or a customer loyalty tool for the retailer. BUT, are retailers also thinking of their own gift cards as a tool to lower operating costs? When your customers use debit and credit cards for their purchases, the burden of the transaction fees falls on that retailer. There are no fees when your customers utilize their closed-loop gift cards in your own name. The impressive numbers add up when you think of the difference your gift cards can make when selling them by the hundreds and thousands in the B2B market. GiftCard Partners’s customers buy multi-millions of dollars in face value gift cards annually across all our retail brands. Those are all consumers using your gift cards versus credit or debit payment card options that rack up fees charged to you. Check out
First Data’s Perspective: The Evolution of Gift Card Strategy to see how retailers and merchants are re-evaluating their cost of payment acceptance at their POS locations.

I had the pleasure of attending the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) 12 Trends in Rewards & Recognition webinar last week. It was a truly well put together and extremely professional event; I don’t tend to take these attributes for granted these days. And the
post webinar white paper download is filled with survey results, studies, insights, economic climate conditions, mobile technology implications in the workplace, the latest engagement techniques, and so much more. During the webinar, they noted that they’d release 2 new studies about the use of prepaid cards as incentives and rewards and
11 new studies and white papers on the use of rewards, recognition, and motivational meetings in the workplace. Here are IRF’s top 12 Trends, do take the time to download the white paper; it’s a must read for employers involved with engagement, motivation, recognition, and rewards…the things that keep your business ticking!