Thank Heavens For Gift Cards
By Fatima D. Lora, Assistant Editor
There was a time when friends and family members would bring one another to their favorite stores and invite them to pick out a gift item. With the invention of the gift card, consumers no longer have to load the car with loved ones just to get them a product they’ll be willing to use.
To me, gift cards are a blessing: easy to use, safer than utilizing a debit/credit card, and they save time and money.
I had more than one baby shower registry, so there were a few things people didn’t purchase. Fortunately (and with my deep appreciation), several attendees offered gift cards to Amazon, Babies ‘R’ Us, Children’s Place and Target. These will come in handy for those registry items as well as baby wipes, diapers and all those pacifiers that mothers say will magically disappear.
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Gift cards also bring consumers to stores and restaurants they’ve never visited. My mother isn’t a fan of dining out, but had wanted to try Olive Garden. For Mother’s Day, my older brother decided to surprise her with an Olive Garden gift card, which helped motivate her to go out to eat. I, too, have been persuaded by gift cards: I’ve never shopped at Children’s Place, but after receiving that gift card, I plan to go next week.
Like physical gift cards, social gifting also is easy, safe and motivating. Retail TouchPoints posted an article about how social gifting helps retailers engage connected consumers. The article included a look at nine companies spearheading the social gifting movement.
One thing these companies’ solutions all have in common is the ability to share customer insights with retailers. Each company also provides various consumer benefits, such as mobile wallet integration, rewards for referrals, and personalization ― all of which can be used with social networking sites such as Facebook.
As social and mobile marketing continue to evolve, it will be interesting to see where providers and retailers take the gifting industry.
Follow Fatima on Twitter: @FatimaDLora
