Almost all of today’s leading retail and hospitality businesses operate a gift card program. Although success of such a program can never be guaranteed, most programs can help drive traffic to business’ locations, increase sales, build brand awareness and promote purchases of higher-margin products.

With gift card spending increasing from $40 billion in 2003 to over $100 billion in 2014*, it’s becoming increasingly important for small businesses to participate in this often overlooked revenue creating trend.

Here are top 7 reasons to offer gift cards:

Almost everyone buys them – 8 out of 10 consumers give gift cards**

  • Almost everyone buys them – 8 out of 10 consumers give gift cards**
  • It can drive new business – loyal customers buy for friends or family
  • People typically spend more – two-thirds of consumers purchase more than the card value**
  • It’s the go-to-gift for birthdays for 60% of consumers**
  • Over 50% of holiday shoppers purchase gift cards**
  • 93% of consumers prefer a $25 gift card over a gift valued at $25**
  • Create repeat business – it typically takes 2 visits to fully redeem a card**

67% of consumers spend more than the initail value of their gift cards

Additional benefits include:

With Clover Gift Cards you can launch a gift card program in just a few minutes. All you have to do is download the Gift Cards app to your Clover Station, Clover Mini or Clover Mobile. There’s no need for new hardware or software.

And if you are not a Clover merchant, please make sure to contact us for a live in-store demonstration.

* Mercator Advisory Group

** First Data, “First Data Consumer Insights into the U.S. Gift Card Market: 2012”, November 2012.