Tips for Increasing Digital Gift Card Sales
As part of the 2024 Merchant Gift Card Evaluation, Australia Edition, a comprehensive report produced by NAPCO Research in conjunction with Blackhawk Network, 50 Australian merchants’ e-commerce gift card programs were evaluated, including the purchaser and recipient experience for both digital and physical cards of the brands’ own gift card, based upon 122 unique criteria. In addition to the benchmark data this assessment yielded, the report featured best practices designed to help merchants improve the performance of their digital gift card programs. Here's a sampling of those best practices, segmented by purchaser and recipient experience.
Purchaser Experience
- Have a page on your website and/or app specifically for gift cards. Include a link to that page from the homepage navigation (e.g., header or footer), and ensure the landing page is aesthetically pleasing, clearly organized, and contains relevant information.
- On the product detail page, communicate the delivery timeline for both digital cards (e.g., immediate delivery, allow the purchaser to schedule the delivery time) and physical cards. Reaffirm these promises at checkout as well as in confirmation emails.
- Boost loyalty program membership by integrating it into the gift card purchase process. For example, on the checkout page allow the purchaser to enter their loyalty account number or sign up to become a loyalty program member.
- Add primary keywords such as "gift cards," "gifts," "e-gifts," etc., to your site taxonomy to return relevant Google results that align with search intent.
- Add non-competitive brands’ gift cards to your retail stores, website and app. This approach can help boost customer acquisition efforts and grow sales in the highly profitable gift card category.
Recipient Experience
- Add an option for recipients to easily add e-gift cards to a mobile wallet or payment app. This will make it convenient for recipients to store and redeem gift cards, both online and in-store, promoting the omnichannel shopping behaviors that have proven so valuable to merchants.
- Ensure the delivery of the card is properly secured, whether physical or digital.
- Make it easy for gift card recipients to check the gift card balance.
- Provide an easy option for recipients to re-gift the card via the brand website and/or app.
- Offer ways for buyers to personalize the gift card recipient experience, including adding a photo to physical cards, photos and videos to digital cards, and personal messages for each channel. This can help to increase recipient engagement with your program and drive incremental purchases.
The above are just some of the actionable best practices that are included in the full report. Download the 2024 Merchant Gift Card Evaluation, Australia Edition today to get all of the best practices as well as insights into digital gift card program trends that can be incorporated within your own business.
