Demand for gift cards has risen steadily in recent years. According to a recent gift card study, more than half of Germans gave at least one gift card as a gift in 2020. Compared with the previous year, more than half of these people said they had also bought (significantly) more gift cards online.
For more and more businesses, gift cards are therefore a welcome source of income that has developed steadily over time and gained importance above all because of the pandemic. Generally speaking, online gift card sales are one of the winners of the pandemic. In the last months of 2020 and the first of 2021, a clear shift from in-store gift card sales to online sales could be observed.
This sales channel grew by almost 140% in 2020 compared to 2019, while classic in-store gift card sales declined slightly.
To help you get started in online gift card sales the right way, here are seven tips for successfully offering your gift cards online:
1. Offer gift cards online – via your website or your online gift card shop
Most businesses sell their gift cards in person. But last year in particular, that wasn't just time-consuming – with frequent closures it was almost impossible.
Selling gift cards online means you can reach your target groups directly, at any time. For you, selling online makes life easier, because you no longer have to take gift card orders by email or phone, create gift cards manually, go to the post office and send them, and so on.
So you have less work and still sell your gift cards to interested customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Your customers are happy and so are you!
Don't have a website yet? No problem at all. Gift card systems like gurado host your online gift card shop for you. If you like, you can link the shop to your website – with gurado, that takes no time at all.
Connect it to your website and start selling your gift cards and tickets for your events, courses or tours right away.
2. Promote gift cards on your homepage and stand out from the competition
Don't make customers hunt for your gift cards. Point them to your new offer with a separate “Gift cards” menu item or a banner on your website.
That way, your customers can find your offers faster and buy a gift card from you even outside your opening hours.
3. Create attractive, occasion-based online gift card designs
Give your customers a real “gift card experience” and don't use a standard gift card. Personalize your gift cards with your company logo, images and texts, and surprise your customers with a truly beautiful gift.
According to a recent study, more than half of respondents prefer a flexible variety of occasion-based designs – e.g. for Easter, Mother's Day, Christmas, birthdays, saying thank you, etc.
With gurado, you can use one of many gift card templates or upload and design your own images. You can just as easily create printed gift cards on quality paper. More and more customers (especially women) want cards made from sustainable materials such as paper, cardboard or wood.
With gurado, printed gift cards are created automatically and printed and mailed by our print partner. Two formats are currently available: an A6 postcard or a DL card. You can find out more in our help articles on printed gift cards.
4. Offer both gift cards and experience vouchers
Let your customers buy a voucher for a specific experience as well as a gift card for any amount. gurado gives you a wide choice of products that you can configure very flexibly: with a fixed or customer-chosen price, different redemption rules, multi-use tickets, or gift cards and tickets with capacity limits.
Our gift card system also lets you import and manage discount codes and gift cards you've already created.
5. Pay attention to your customers' wishes
According to a new survey, the following aspects are particularly important to end customers when deciding to buy a gift card on your website:
- that they can choose the gift card amount themselves,
- that the gift cards can also be used in person (or in your branches),
- that they can choose from different packaging,
- that the gift cards can also be sent by post,
- that the printed gift cards are made from sustainable materials such as wood, cardboard or grass/bio-PVC,
- that the gift cards can be sent by email with the “Print@Home” option (PDF gift cards),
- that customers can add their own greetings and/or upload images.
Last year, gift cards were particularly popular with the 30–39 age group (approx. 67%), followed by the 18–29 and 40–49 age groups.
The better you know your customers and their preferences, the easier it will be to tailor your gift card offer to them and market it successfully.
6. Market your gift cards on your social media
Besides linking the gift card shop on your homepage and promoting it in your store, social media marketing is a must. Create posts on Instagram, Facebook, Google Business, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. and tell your subscribers about your gift card offer.
You can also tie this to a special offer – for example, the first X followers who share or like the post get a special deal. That way, not only your Facebook fans will see your post, but potential new customers too – you increase your reach and gain valuable followers.
Facebook & Instagram ads also let you target specific audiences by city, age, gender or interests.
7. If possible, let customers redeem gift cards in your online shop
If you also run a regular online shop, many customers will want to redeem their gift cards there too.
Good luck selling your gift cards online – and if you have any questions, we're happy to help!
