Digital gift cards have been a great partner for eCommerce stores during the Covid-19 pandemic times. It helped several businesses stay afloat. There is no need to be surprised at the stupendous rise that it has shown in the past few years. Just like the rise in eCommerce transactions, the rise in digital gift card usage is a sweet byproduct. The gift card market is expected to reach $510 billion by 2025.

If you are an eCommerce retailer, there isn’t a better time to adopt digital gift cards for your customers. They are going to love digital gift cards as it offers a world of convenience for them. With the holiday season closing in on us, you need to embrace gift cards. Here’s why? According to MakeWebBetter, the demand for gift cards increases by 20% during the holiday season.

8 reasons why digital gift cards are essential for eCommerce businesses:

• Helps drive more traffic to your site:

With the right strategy, gift cards can bring in a lot more traffic than most other sources. You don’t have to put a lot of effort either; there will be customers proactively searching for gift cards to give their loved ones. Your customers will visit your website to get the gift card, or its recipients will download them there. Ensure you provide an excellent experience for your site visitors, as it can help with increasing goodwill.

• Increased sales potential:

Gift cards improve the average order value that is usually expected from a customer. They are one of the most requested presents during the holiday season. The pressure to get the right gift is incredibly high, especially during the holiday season.

No one wants to hear complaints about the dress being too tight or the toy being of a color that the kid doesn’t like. Such skirmishes are best avoided. The easier route for every holiday shopper is to get a gift card from the recipient’s favorite store. It is a double-whammy since both parties are happy now.

• Digital gift cards are convenient:

Paper gift cards or physical gift cards can be easily lost. Digital ones are far more sophisticated, convenient, and safe. The hassle of sending a digital gift card is almost zero. You can send gift cards directly to the recipient’s email box. The gift card recipients also can purchase products from their favorite eCommerce store without getting out of the house.

Special occasions like the holiday season are even more special when your gift recipient gets something they absolutely love. As we mentioned earlier, it is a lot of pressure. Buying a gift card and offering it to the recipient saves a ton of time and they can also get something based on their preferences.

• Promotes customer loyalty:

The truth is that customers have several options these days. Therefore, loyalty is essentially zilch. Giving away gift cards during the holiday season is a great way for eCommerce websites to attract existing ones. You can also add a bit of incentive for customers who are buying gift cards with offers like the ones below.

Here are a few examples of gift card offers:

• Free $10 gift card when someone purchases goods worth $100 or a gift card worth the same value.
• Free $20 gift card for someone who buys products worth $120 from the electronics section.

You can pick and choose the offers that you want to give. At the end of the day, it brings your customers closer to you- that’s the entire point. Find ways to sweeten the deal. Each free gift card will get your customer back to your eCommerce site or physical store.

• Helps compete with major retailers:

Major retailers like Costco, Walmart, and Amazon have strong marketing teams. They face no trouble in bringing customers over and over as they have the financial muscle, a strong ecosystem, and a stellar brand reputation in place. Competing against such giants is a big task if you are a small business. Gift cards can make a small dent in bringing newer customers to you.

It is one of the best ways to compete with major brands organically. Gift cards have the potential to attract customers from competitors. It depends on how you showcase your eCommerce gift cards to your customers.

• Improves customer retention:

The balance in the gift card is one of the best things that happened to eCommerce retailers. When a customer buys a gift card, the chances of them using the entire value of the card is negligible. So what happens? They come back again to buy from you. It is a great chance for you to provide them a fantastic experience so that they are impressed with your brand. It will help retain them as customers.

• Increases brand awareness:

The gift card recipients are usually friends or family of the one who purchased it from you. Most of the times, these are people who have not purchased from you. Gift cards expose you to a new audience and increases brand awareness among them. Even some of your old customers who stopped shopping from you will visit your store to use the value on the gift card they received.

• Can be used off-season too:

Gift cards are not something that are sold exclusively during the holiday season alone. There are non-seasonal events like birthdays, marriages, and anniversaries too. People celebrate their achievements round the clock. If you are hesitating about investing in gift cards because it will only be a seasonal thing, you couldn’t be far from the truth. No one needs occasions to send gift cards to their loved ones these days. Digital gift cards are going to be perennially necessary for your eCommerce brand.

Why do your customers love digital gift cards?

• Recipients get the freedom to pick the presents they want:

The ability to choose one’s own gifts is one of the biggest advantages for a gift card recipient. The flexibility that it offers eases family tensions because people are picky about what they want and expectations are sky-high during the holiday season. Gift cards can also be used at the physical store or online store. Also, the recipient of the gift card can buy more expensive items when shopping with gift cards.

• It saves time:

The customer who is purchasing gift card from you doesn’t have to shop around the store to find the perfect gift. All they need to do is buy the digital card online and email it to the recipient. It will take less than a minute. No one will accuse the person for forgetting about their loved ones during the holiday season. They also get to decide the budget of the present by specifying the amount to the seller at the time of purchase.

• Solves the last-minute rush to buy gifts:

Digital gift cards are a great option for those who are pressed for time. The one who is buying the gift card can immediately send them to the recipient. There are programs where you can buy gift cards of leading retailers and pay them off in installments of zero interest.

Wrapping up:

The growth of digital gift card usage by customers is a testament to the kind of love that customers have for them. They are not just a product, they can be used as a marketing tool, when used effectively. Gift cards are useful for eCommerce stores of all sizes, all you have to do is leverage them in your marketing campaigns for the holiday season.

If you haven’t set up a gift card program for your eCommerce store yet, let the experts at 99minds do the job. Get in touch with us to understand how we can help you with our sophisticated and feature-rich digital gift card platform.