Why Ecommerce Businesses Need Physical Gift Cards

Do you have an ecommerce business and have been thinking about selling gift cards? We are here to tell you why it makes excellent business sense, and why you should use physical cards. 

According to research by Gift Card Granny, 93% of consumers have given or received a gift card. And National Gift Card Corp. stated that 75% of consumers say they’d prefer physical gift cards over digital. Why, you ask? There are several reasons; let’s go through them below.

Physical card incentives:

1. Reminder - seeing the physical card reminds them that they have free “money” to use
2. Memory - when using the card, they remember the reason and from whom they received it
3. Brand awareness - this is an easy way to market to new consumers that may have never used your product before
4. Personal - receiving a physical gift card is seen as more special than a digital card
5. Revenue - consumers typically buy more than the amount of the gift card
6. Security - physical gift cards are a secure way of purchasing items online; no personal information is exchanged
7. Point-of-sale system - gift cards can use the same POS system you currently use with your credit cards; no need for new software or additional equipment
8. Misplaced - digital cards are often overlooked or get lost in email

Businesses like Apple’s iTunes and Amazon have physical gift cards in most retail stores, although these stores are ecommerce only (no brick and mortar structures) because they recognize that having physical gift cards in places where many people shop, is simply smart business.

Whether you partner with retail stores or allow customers to order physical gift cards on your website, you see that physical gift cards make great business sense.

Do you want to learn more about gift cards for ecommerce, leave us a comment below, call us at 651.686.0660 or email us at info@cardsource.com. Or if you enjoyed this article and think others would too, please pass it onto your colleagues or friends.