Literally Get Free Money From Gift Cards
On average 10-15% of gift cards are never redeemed. The card values can be set by you, and either pre-loaded or reloaded. You can ensure the safety of your cards by loading them on a per-order basis, rather than having pre-loaded cards on display. As convenient as they are, they can get lost just as easily as a credit card, and if someone finds a wallet, there is no guarantee they will have any interest in the gift cards within. If a gift card provider were to buy 200 cards with a $50.00 balance with a total of $10,000, there’s a really good chance that $1,000 would never even be redeemed. So, essentially, the purchasers of those cards would be handing money over in exchange for no product or service at all, amounting to the equivalent of a $1000 ‘tip’ just for offering gift cards in the first place!
That doesn’t even take into account the smaller unredeemed amounts that people don’t bother coming back for. They add up! In addition, when a customer returns merchandise, whether it was purchased with a gift card or not, you have the option of offering a refund in the form of a gift card in lieu of cash, ensuring that the value of the return stays with your business. In the days of “store credit only” a customer might feel obliged to choose something they don’t really want because returning to the store isn’t convenient. Nowadays, they can re-gift the card to a potential new customer who may appreciate your wares more than the original recipient did.