How to increase gift card sales for your small business

By selling gift cards, small businesses can take advantage of certain benefits like expanding their customer base, boosting their cash flow, and encouraging repeat business. The flexibility of a gift card lets anyone support their favorite local or online businesses or try new shops and services, even if they don’t know what to purchase. So, let’s take a closer look at how gift cards can help businesses thrive and why they should be a key part of any small business’s sales strategy.

How to sell gift cards

There are several ways that can make selling gift cards for your business a breeze, while also helping you connect with your local customer base, reach new audiences, and generate buzz. Read on to learn some simple ways for how to promote gift card sales.

Make gift cards available to purchase online and make it easy 

Businesses would love for their customers to be fully engrossed in everything they do and all the products and services they sell, but people are busy. The easier you make it for them to quickly purchase a gift card, the better. With a strong gift card program, you can help make physical and digital gift cards easier to purchase, and you can track gift card sales and design creative cards.

Run campaigns around peak gift-giving seasons

Holidays and special occasions present perfect opportunities to boost gift card sales. Stand out from the crowd with creative campaigns that involve the community—like partnering with local schools, artists, or community organizations to create card artwork. Consider fun ways to build connections locally and turn basic presents into ones that feel more personal and special. You can even offer to donate a small percentage of the limited-edition gift card sales back to a school or community organization.

Offer promotions that people can’t pass up

Everyone loves a good deal, so why not offer a special promotion to encourage customers to purchase gift cards? For example, buy one gift card and get another at a discount, or offer a free gift card with a minimum purchase. To spread promotions evenly across the calendar, you can offer birthday promotions for your customers so that they get a $30 gift card for $25 during their birthday month. This is a fun way to make customers feel special while helping you boost gift card sales. Another great promotion is to offer a free small gift with each gift card purchase over $25.

Promote gift cards on social media

Social media can do wonders for increasing gift card sales! Not only is it an easy way to stay top-of-mind for customers, but there are ways to make it interactive so your followers feel more invested. For example, you can offer contests where your customers post pictures of them enjoying your product, whether that’s a cup of coffee, a new haircut, or new shoes, and tag your account so that they are included in a raffle to win a gift card. Another fun social promotion is to run a poll and ask people to comment which card design they like best. The one with the most votes will be available for purchase. You can also make it more broad with a post asking people to comment what they most use gift cards for. It’s an effective way to generate conversation and remind people to think of your business when they need a gift.

Online shopping has definitely increased the opportunity for buying and using gift cards. They are always in season, and selling gift cards can mean increased profits and brand awareness, both of which are major wins.

Want additional insight about how to sell more gift cards and how to promote more gift card sales? Check out these articles:

• 7 reasons these real-world merchants use (and love) gift cards
• How these Clover merchants are using gift cards
• eGift cards guide: How to buy, sell, and use them

Editorial Team

Ecommerce, Gift cards, Marketing, Strategy

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