Why are Gift Cards important for ecommerce marketplaces?

With holiday season comes the time for gifting our loved ones.

When you decide whom to gift the next big question is what to gift. A gift that is thoughtful, likeable and affordable all in one.

If it offers some solace then you aren’t alone facing this dilemma, the customers on your marketplace are in the same boat.

Why not turn this into an opportunity to drive sales and also retain your loyal customers for a longer period.

You’re probably spending huge amounts of money for marketing your online venture. Why not leverage on gift cards’ potential to bring customers and successful conversions. Specially when trends have proven that gift cards are a favourite of the customers.

What is a gift card?

A gift card can be understood as a prepaid card often used as a marketing tool by ecommerce sites. These are generally purchased by customers for gifting purposes. The receiver may redeem the gift card amount on their purchase from the said ecommerce store.

How are gift cards used as a marketing tool?

Gift cards can be leveraged as a marketing tool around the year as opposed to the common misconception that gift cards cause effective sales only in the festive season. So much so that gift  cards were the most trending gift items in 2018. The trends most definitely speak volumes about the effectiveness of gift cards as a marketing tool. Which also means that customer traffic might actually be reaching your competitor’s store since they’re offering gift cards already.

As per the National Retail Federation’s 2015 survey gift cards have topped the list of most asked for gift items for the ninth year in a row.

Gift cards can be the perfect gift your customers might be looking for. However the fact that people want to give thoughtful gifts might come in the way of sales of your gift cards but solution to that problem is also not far away. A little effort put into the personalization of the gift cards on your marketplace would go a long way in achieving improved conversions.

Personalized gift cards have a two fold advantage. On one hand they give recipients the freedom to choose what they want to have as their gift whereas on the other hand they don't appear generic too. Here is when gift cards that are retailer specific come to play. Certain amount of personalization on gift cards multiplies the gifting sentiment attached to it and results in more customers opting for one.

How to get better at Gift Cards?

Spread the word:

Make sure to convey the message effectively to your customers. Reach out to them through multiple communication channels and spread the word about your gift card. No amount of interesting engagement measures that you take on your website is going to make a considerable difference unless marketed well. Same applies in the case of gift cards. Leverage the potential of social media, email marketing along with paid advertising to reach your customers far and wide.

Personalization:

Nowadays almost all ecommerce marketplaces are beginning to offer gift cards to their customers. What can you do to not just be yet another one. You got to treat your customers with something extra.

Personalization can do the trick for you. Be it an upcoming festival or a popular sale season you must aim to provide a personalized experience through gift cards.

Right from allowing your customers to add personal notes to adding pictures the options are multiple.

Benefits of having gift cards:

Brings in new customers:

Apart from being the well known ‘sales booster’ gift cards play a very important role in bringing new leads to your door. The recipients of your gift cards even if not your usual customers will visit your ecommerce website at least one to check it out.  This will be your opportunity to create a lasting impression.

More sale potential:

Gift cards tend to improve the average order value expected from a customer. Also gift cards create in buyers a sense of urgency to purchase a certain product that may not be available after some time.

Improves brand visibility:

Gift cards are efficient and cost effective marketing tools. They ensure repeated site visits and conversions more than any other means of advertorial measures.

Its time you have the much in demand gift cards added to your ecommerce website. Whether yours is a small or a big online business the introduction of gift cards can be a powerful means for you to improve the returns.

About CedCommerce:

CedCommerce offers the necessary technical solutions specifically made for tapping into the endless ecommerce potential.. These extensions come with a multitude of features to aid in the development of a rich multi vendor ecommerce marketplace. CedCommerce’s Magento 2 Marketplace extensions and add-ons are ready made and reasonably priced solutions for building a website like Amazon. A marketplace armed with these features is undoubtedly going to possess the best in class features.