An eCommerce store aims to rack as much as products on their virtual shelves to suffice the needs of every single user visiting the store. Despite hundreds of products, a buyer may still be unable to buy an item suitable to gift a friend or family member on a specific occasion. All your efforts of managing products in multiple categories drain out when a user leaves your website because there was nothing worth mentioning for gifting the best buddy.
The idea of creating gift cards pops in as an alternative. It encourages the users to buy a shopping voucher to gift it and let the receiver shop his or her favorite items. It is important for any online store that does not want to lose the customers. It has many other benefits as well that I will discuss later in this post.
What Is a Gift Card?
A gift card is a win-win option. It is a prepaid card, which a user buys to send as a gift to someone special. The eCommerce store makes a sale, and the buyer gets a brilliant gift to send. The receiver gets a voucher to shop for his or her favorite items free of cost. Therefore, it is a blissful choice for all.
Useful for you:
How Does It Work?
An eCommerce store may not have the functionality of selling gift cards in addition to their catalog. They can seek assistance from applications such as Magento 2 Gift Card extension or any other tool suitable for the eCommerce platform they use. The extension helps to create multiple types of gift cards and displaying them on a dedicated page. It has three different pricing models to set the price of the gift certificates and many customization options.
How Important Are Gift Cards?
Gift cards have multiple implications on the sales, branding, and promotions of an eCommerce website. The intriguing fact behind this strategy is adding a gift option that prevents the users from leaving the store with an empty cart. The post discusses some more reasons below that make gift card important and value addition to your online store.
1. Retaining Your Existing Customers
A gift card is an additional option for your existing buyers to shop around. The customers can simply buy a gift voucher if they are confused about buying a gift suitable for their family or friend’s interest, or need to attend a gathering or a special event.
We all want to present something precious to our friends that they need the most. However, somehow, we may not wholly know their needs and interests. Therefore, to relief your customers in selecting a gift, let them buy a coupon card so that the receiver can redeem it on your store and order his or her favorite items.
2. Outreaching New Buyers
Every business aims to expand beyond a locality and customer base. To attract more customers towards your customers, the creation of gift cards is an effective strategy. Your customers who purchase the gift cards would like to send it via email, personal message, or by post.
The gift card receivers are your new customers as they are recommended to make the purchases from the store. They visit your store in pursuit of turning in the vouchers, and they find valuable products or services at your store. Once they like your store, they will come again. You get the new buyers while retaining them depends on you.
3. Building Trust and Credibility
The way your customers send out gift cards to their loved ones, it serves as a recommendation. It is a form of testimonial that I trust the website, and you must try it with a few purchases with the coupon.
The receiver of the gift voucher may surely discuss and appreciate the items he or she receives in return on the voucher. This helps you build trust and credibility among the potential customers and their social circles.
4. Collecting Funds Before Taking Orders
Gift cards are prepaid. The customers pay you in advance and refer your store to the gift receiver. Therefore, you get the funds or the revenue quite before making a sale. Having funds in advance improves the cash inflow of your online venture so you can make more items available in your store.
5. Adding Another Stream of Income
You might be making sales and earning money from the traditional buyer’s journey. In addition to routine shopping, online buyers are always in search of discounts, coupons, and vouchers. If you are not offering gift cards, you might be losing part of the income that you can receive from them.
Your customers may visit the store once or twice a month to find if you have an appealing deal to offer. With gift cards, you can encourage them to make the purchases and save money. You can create discount vouchers that allow the customers to shop more while spending less of their money.
6. Free Branding and Promotion
The gift cards bear your brand logo, business name, and any slogans that you have. With further personalization, you can add images of various products or business premises to the gift cards. You can endorse a social cause or condemn the social evils on cards, and people will connect emotionally to your brand.
They will get to know about the good things you care the most. As a result, they will start recognizing your business as a brand. The more a gift card spreads across the buyers, the more they promote your venture.