It’s common for retailers to see up to 50% of their yearly gift card sales occur during the holiday period, so it’s a crucial time for both brands and retailers to be driving their gift card program and, therefore, sales. 🙌
Both physical and digital gift cards are essential revenue drivers during the peak period. In the UK, digital gift cards have overtaken physical gift card sales for the first time ever! However, this by no means means one is more essential than the other – they’re equally important to consider.
At Jigsaw, we’re experts in launching, managing and growing gift card programs – we exist purely to help brands maximise the potential of their gift card program. We handle every piece of the puzzle so you can focus on your business, while we ensure your gift cards become a powerful revenue stream.
Luckily for you, we’ve created a list of seven things you can do to prepare your gift card program for the peak season…
1. Start your preparation early
💳 Stock up on physical cards: Ensure you have sufficient stock to meet demand – the last thing you want is to run out of physical cards in the run up to the holidays! Make sure you do your forecasting and planning in the summer months so you know exactly how many you need. Using data from previous years is the best place to start, but if you’re new to the gift card space, then Jigsaw can help you forecast based on our industry knowledge.
🖥️ Digital infrastructure: Check that your e-gift card platform is capable of handling higher volumes of traffic and is optimised for a seamless user experience. There’s nothing worse than getting to the end of the check out process and the website crashing; you want to make it as easy as possible for consumers to get their hands on your gift cards and redeem them. If you don’t currently have a processor in place, then we can help with that too.
📈 Marketing and promotion plans: Setting up your marketing strategy early is the key to success, that could be email campaigns, social media ads or in-store promotions. Getting your gift card promotions in front of prospective buyers shouldn’t be underestimated! And if you’re dealing with B2B buyers then make sure to also build in time for them to build your campaign activity into their own promotional plan.
2. Get the design and packaging right
💳 Physical cards: Getting the design right for your gift cards is essential, you want it to stand out in a sea of other physical gift cards. Festive, appealing and colourful designs make them the perfect present, but don’t forget to take into consideration readability and fraud-preventative packaging. Traditional designs are always a must, but do explore other options tailored to your target audience and their design preferences, even if that means deviating from the norm.
💻 Digital cards: The beauty of digital gift cards is their ability to be personalised! This means consumers can pick from a range of holiday designs and animations, giving them more freedom and choice – a real win-win. While physical gift cards are relatively restricted, with digital gift cards the sky is the limit!
3. Consider exclusive holiday promotions
Holiday promotions are a great way to increase sales of your gift card, especially in B2B channels where all or part of the discount can be passed onto the end consumer.
At a time when people are watching their spend and trying to thoughtfully purchase Christmas gifts, an additional 1% or 2% discount can go a long way.
If gift card discounts aren’t an option for you then you can still take advantage of the holiday promotional period by creating gift card bundles. Bundles may combine gift cards with other products or services to incentivise further purchases – whatever your approach to promotions Jigsaw can find the best solution for you.
4. Leverage multi-channel sales opportunities
The key to maximising your gift card sales during the holiday season is to make sure you’re leveraging all of the sales channels available to you. This includes:
🤝 In-store and online: Make sure it’s as easy as possible for your customers to buy your gift cards, both in-store and online.
🛍️ Third-party retailers: A great idea can be to partner with other retailers or marketplaces to sell your gift cards, increasing both brand visibility and accessibility.
💌 Corporate gifting programs: This is a huge opportunity for brands and retailers alike; B2B makes up 72% of the gift card market, meaning the potential is massive. Many businesses are looking to gift their employees or clients around the holidays and gift cards are the perfect way to do just that. Gift cards can be used as seasonal bonuses, employee gifting and can be bought for self use via employee benefit platforms. So, you definitely want to be promoting bulk gift card options for businesses around the holidays!
5. Be mindful of security risks and fraud prevention measures
Safeguarding your gift card program from fraud might not be on the top of your list, but it’s an important aspect of the process. No one wants to be a Grinch at Christmas, but ensuring you have a secure processor and tamper-proof physical packaging is really important.
Luckily, at Jigsaw, our processor – Jigsaw360 – has built in fraud prevention systems, meaning if a transaction is flagged as being potentially fraudulent a member of our team has to manually check it, so you know you’re in safe hands. We’re also experts in physical gift cards, and can help you design tamper-proof packaging without compromising on the Christmas spirit.
6. Capture as much data as possible
We all know how important it is to use data when planning and strategising for the holiday season. Brands and retailers should be leveraging data from previous years to better understand what their customers want, how their gift cards were redeemed and to create a clear picture of seasonal demand. This does however mean ensuring the data is being collected and tracked correctly to get the most use out of it.
At Jigsaw, this is a huge part of our day to day roles; our brands get regular reports looking at all the key data points and the peak holiday season is no expectation. If you don’t have any data from previous years, our experts can use historical data and sales figures to help you have a successful first year.
7. Take advantage of the post-holiday hype!
Last but not least, don’t forget that holiday spending continues well after December 25th!
67% of consumers usually spend £18.55 more than the value of the gift card. This can be great during the Boxing Day sales and following months where spending normally tends to slow down.
Gift cards are also a great way for new customers to find you around the holiday season; your job is to turn these people into loyal customers after, which can be tricky but is doable!
For example, after a gift card is redeemed you can reach out with a personalised thank you message giving them a discount on their next purchase, tailored recommendations based on their purchase or invite them to join a loyalty program. All of these make customers feel valued and more connected to your brand.
How can Jigsaw help you maximise your holiday gift card program?
At Jigsaw, we’re experts in helping brands and retailers see the potential of their gift card program, especially around peak season.
There are a lot of considerations to ensure your gift card is performing to the best of its ability – for us it’s our whole world. We live and breathe gift cards and have decades of experience helping brands establish gift cards as a powerful revenue stream.
Whether launching, managing, or growing gift card programs, we offer a full suite of services designed to drive success. Here’s a little taste of what we do:
🚀 Gift Card Program Management
💯 White-Label eCommerce Solutions
💰 Gift Card Processing and Fraud Prevention
🌍 Territory and Channel Expansion
🤝 Multi-Channel Distribution
💳 Physical and Stock Management
If you want to maximise your holiday gift card sales, we’d love to help you. Get in touch with our team today.
