There was a time not so long ago that a gift card was viewed as a thoughtless gift. More recently, there has been a resurgence in both gift card purchases and uses. This shift toward thoughtfulness got Plastic Printers thinking. How and why has this change occurred? That’s the question we’ll be answering in this week’s template installment.

Gifting on a Budget

Gift cards have made their presence known in the retail market to the tune of a $100 billion business. There are four main staples that have make this possible:

1. The BOGO deals-you buy a gift card for someone and get a pre-set one for yourself.
2. Making the cards open-loop and reloadable-the fact that recipients can re-use them or use them anywhere credit cards are accepted brings a new level of flexibility and convenience.
3. The built-in spending control-these cards can double as a budgetary tool to help you live more affordably.
4. The exchange-the gift card’s answer to the re-gifting process. Recipients can exchange the cards they don’t want for the cards they do. Web-based businesses have been established just for this purpose.

Now, that we’ve covered the customer-friendly benefits, let’s look at the business boons.

The Ability to be in Two Places at Once

Normally, business owners don’t have this ability, but gift cards have begun to change that.

• You can have physical cards for your brick and mortar locations and digital cards available on your website. That way; you can double your promotional efforts while offering customers a beneficial service.

• Couple your gift card sales with customer loyalty cards and incentives and claim your corner of a $23 billion dollar market.

• You can appeal to a wide range of customers at once; even if their on-the-go with mobile certificates.

Between the customer benefits and generating leads for your business; gift cards are practical and practically recession-proof. The electronic version is not expected to overtake the classic plastic card, which is good news for Plastic Printers and for you.

You can test out your gift certificate market for free. We’ve made our “sealed with a stamp” template available through the website: www.plasticprinters.com. Simply select your favorite variation from our free template page, download it, customize it, and hit print.

After your test campaign is done, contact us and we can help you design a complete promotional package for your business. Cards are all we do and we do them expertly well.