Meta Description: Discover actionable strategies for boosting gift card sales on your Shopify store. From bundling to email campaigns, learn how to elevate your gift card strategy.
In e-commerce today, gift cards are no longer just placeholders for indecisive shoppers. They are marketing tools that help with cash flow, customer acquisition, retention and more. This provides amazing potential for online retailers to completely change their businesses.
People that sell more gift cards tend to understand these benefits. They leverage this understanding and tend to promote them more. This leads to them typically growing faster than their competitors. In this article we are going to talk about methods you can use to increase your gift card sales. This can be the difference between a thriving business and one that is soon to fail.
Bundling has been a tactic of stores for decades. They help appeal to customers' desire for value and convenience. When a shopper sees products grouped together at a discount the offer is harder to resist. When combining both physical products and gift cards the benefits are even greater!
Consider the idea of bundling a $50 gift card with a trending item from your store at a slightly discounted rate. This gives the customers the immediate benefit of the product. It also helps you as the merchant an opportunity to create a future purchase through the gift card.
E-commerce is a hard business. Finding as many ways improve a customers experience is important. Carts can be easily abandoned offering bundles helps improve conversion. They create a real increase in a customers benefit. With the help of gift cards that benefit is both immediate and delayed. This ensures today's sale leads to tomorrow's sale as well.
In the retail world, few strategies appeal to consumers like a good discount. People simply love the idea of getting a deal.
Think about it, what do you think a shopper sees when an e-commerce store offers a $100 gift card for $90? They see a deal that they need to get immediately.
This built in urgency is great for cash flow. As any economist would tell you, "a dollar received today is more valuable than one received in the future". So, even with the upfront discount, the cash flow can often be more valuable than the discount.
Upselling, when done right, is an elegant dance between seller and buyer. The subtle art of suggesting a gift card to purchase at check. out can often lead to a last minute purchase. Similar to the bundling scenario this encourages someone to buy a gift card when they weren't thinking about it.
As a customer is rounding up their shopping, they’re already in a purchasing mindset. This makes it the best time to show them to complementary offerings or better deals. In this context a gift card is a great offer. They already like your product. This just gives them a way to give it to a friend.
Leading e-commerce brands have mastered this strategy. Take Fashion Nova, for instance. Their "Customers also bought" section is an upselling goldmine. This often leads customers to buy more than they initially intended. Using similar tools with gift cards as the recommendation can significantly increase gift card sales.
When making an online purchase people gravitate towards the easier option. A straightforward purchasing process can be the difference between a sale and an abandoned cart. Features like a 'Send as a Gift' option transforms the shopping experience.
When a customer wants to buy someone a gift card make it easy for them. You know 90-95% of the time people are buying gift cards for loved ones. Make it so they can enter their loved ones info prior to checking out so it is delivered easily. This takes away the thought behind buying a gift card and in turn will help increase sales. For Shopify merchants, the objective should be clear, make buying easy. The gift card buying journey should be no different.
Digital storefronts present a unique challenge. Without a brick-and-mortar store, where you place things on the page is how you show importance. In traditional stores, gift cards are usually near the checkout to ensure shoppers see them. Online retailers, need to think of gift cards similarly.
Putting gift cards in the navigation menus can make all the difference. This shows your clients that you sell gift cards. For 9 out of 10 e-commerce merchants you have to search for gift cards. If you want to sell more gift cards don't be like this. The goal is to clearly show your gift card offerings.
Building Awareness Through Regular Promotion
In the e-commerce, your email list is your most important asset. Each subscriber is a potential customer or repeat customer. They have shown interest in your offerings and brand so now you can sell them. Reaching out to this audience with tailored promotions is a common practice. Adding gift cards to those promotions can significantly increase their sales.
Seasonal promotions, holidays or special occasions, offer perfect opportunities to promote gift cards. Think of Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, or even a store anniversary. These events are great to pair with a gift card promotion. These promition emails also go great with the tactics mentioned above. Don't just send an email, add a discounts or bundle to increase the chances of a sale. The idea is to ensure every emails hits recipients at a time that they are ready to buy with an offer they are ready to take!
In the evolving landscape of e-commerce, simply offering gift cards isn't enough. Successful store owners understand that to really sell gift cards they need to do more. By leveraging your customer's preferences and buying behavior, you can create strategies that not only drive sales but also foster loyalty.
Yet, as with any strategy, resting on one's laurels is not an option. Continual testing, feedback analysis, and optimization keep your methods fresh and relevant. And while it's easy to view gift cards merely as another revenue stream, it's important to see their broader potential. Beyond immediate sales, they serve as potent tools for customer engagement, driving both retention and cementing brand loyalty in a competitive market.
