All businesses should always be looking for ways to increase their revenues. One way of doing so is increasing marketing spend to reach as many people as possible. This does not always work well, especially for businesses that do not have a large marketing budget to compete with larger businesses. Gift cards are a great alternative, allowing businesses to reach more customers while also helping businesses increase revenues. Here is how businesses can use them to achieve both.
Upsell and Keep the Difference
Businesses make money with gift cards when someone buys them, and gift cards only become a liability when they are redeemed. Businesses can make money a second way by upselling to customers who shop using them.
Customers shopping using gift cards are less sensitive to prices. This is because they have already been primed to think they are getting a discount. By upselling, they will only have to pay the difference between the price and value of the gift card, with the business capturing the difference as additional revenue from the sale of the gift card.
Businesses can nudge customers to buy something else in addition to what they wanted to buy in the first place. An alternative is convincing them to buy a more expensive version of an item they would have bought anyway.
Increased Brand Awareness
When one of your regular customers purchases your gift card for a friend or loved one, they are inadvertently advertising your business without you having to put in any extra effort after the sale of the gift card. In this way, the gift card helps improve your brand awareness while also helping you convert strangers into customers through your customers.
Once they have the gift card, they can shop in your store, and this will help them become even more familiar with your brand. If they like what they see and the level of service they get, they could even convert into repeat customers.
To ensure your gift cards have the desired impact, ensure they are designed and created to be as eye-catching as possible. They can also be paired with additional incentive products so a lot more people can see their utility and use them. There are various Blackhawk Network competitors who accept gift cards and who can be instrumental in helping you take advantage of the brand awareness that comes with allowing your customers to use them.
They Increase Omnichannel Sales
It is more common for businesses to have more than one sales channel. Customers can buy goods in physical stores, on social media, or your ecommerce website. Ensuring the provided gift card is usable on all these channels opens up numerous opportunities for omnichannel sales.
Businesses can ensure that no matter where a customer decides to complete a purchase, they can use their gift card.
Encouraging customers to also use gift cards on your mobile app is a great strategy. Research shows that people buy up to four times using a mobile app. Allowing them to use gift cards in these instances just makes this more of a possibility.
Gift cards make for great, well, gifts. In addition, they are also a great way for businesses to increase their sales and revenue. They can help attract new customers, improve satisfaction and retention, and give businesses a chance to upsell customers for increased revenues.