Submit Your Article Advertise Newsletter
Subscribe to our RSS feed!

Selling Online Gift Cards for Personalized Gift Ideas


Online Gift Cards Gaining In Popularity

Do you provide online gift cards for your online shop? If not, it may be something you want to consider. CashStar released the results of an interesting survey about pre-holiday online shopping and gift cards.

The survey indicated that more consumers are going online to purchase gift cards, and not just plastic gift cards for the physical world, but electronic gift-cards that can be delivered through email.

The survey found that 68 percent of online shoppers agree that buying a gift card online that can be sent via e-mail is more convenient than having plastic cards shipped to the gift card recipient. 80 percent of online shoppers indicated that if their favorite store or restaurant offered a personalized online gift card on their website, they would be more likely to purchase an online gift card from that retailer.

In fact personalization is a big draw of the online gift card, according to CashStar's findings. People often discourage themselves from buying gift cards as gifts, because they can feel impersonal. These findings suggest that online gift-cards can go a long way in curbing that notion.

Half of all respondents said they have decided against giving gift cards in the past because they were not personal enough. Eighty five percent of online shoppers who are planning to give gift cards this holiday season expressed interest in purchasing personalized online cards that can be sent via e-mail. Seventy percent reported that the ability to personalize a gift card is of importance to them.

There is a reason beyond messaging that online gift cards can actually prove to be more personalized gifts. Think about this. Traditionally gift cards are mostly given for well-known big-brand franchises. Sure, there are plenty of small business gift cards/certificates out there in the real world, but if a consumer looks for an online gift card for an online business, there are just simply more options, which can be narrowed down to any niche that the recipient happens to be interested, hence making for a more personalized gift.

For example, if the recipient lives in Small Town, KY, they may not have access to a brick and mortar store that would really appeal to a particular interest. There are a lot more options online, because location doesn't necessarily factor into the equation.

Some additional findings from CashStar's survey include:

- Print-at-home is becoming increasingly popular. Survey respondents print the following at home: coupons (70%), boarding passes (48%), concert/movie tickets (30%) and gift cards (14%).

- Online shoppers interested in ‘green’ alternatives. More than half (56%) of respondents said they are more likely to purchase online gift cards because they are better for the environment than petroleum-based plastic cards.

- Gift cards remain popular choice this holiday. A third of consumers plan to do more of their holiday shopping online than they did in 2008 and 40 percent plan to give gift cards (of that number, 70 percent plan to give between two and five gift cards this year).

- Siblings and friends top gift card recipient list, while restaurants top gift card category. Online shoppers revealed that their top gift card recipients are siblings (48%) and friends (45%). Restaurants topped the gift card category list with 59 percent of online shoppers planning to give restaurant gift cards. General retail and consumer electronics were close behind with 56 percent and 35 percent respectively.

Do you offer online gift cards? If not, what is stopping you?

AddThis Social Bookmark Widget

About the author:
Chris is a content coordinator and staff writer for SmallBusinessNewz and the iEntry Network. Subscribe to SmallBusinessNewz RSS Feeds.

Comments

Not sure...

Thanks, Chris, for this great information. I'm just not sure how to implement the idea for my safety and security web site. My items are not typically thought of for Chritmas gift giving but are certainly appreciated by those who need them.

gift cards

One issue with gift cards for personal services is that the recipient may not be as interested in and/or doesn't value the products/services, and thus is not a well qualified client, resulting in a minimal sale. As a professional portrait photographer, I've had gift cards not redeemed or the sale limited to the base gift card amount.

Sell card

If you want to ditch your crappy giftcard for cold, hard cash, you can simply put it up for auction. As mentioned above, you will generally have to sell it for less than the value of the card, but considering you didn’t pay for it in the first place and would probably have just let it expire, its found money

Discount Gift Cards

I’m probably going to have some percentage of my shopping budget dedicated to gift cards this year.

 I suggest abcgiftcards.com

 I suggest abcgiftcards.com is best website for online buying,selling of gift cards at cheapest price.

Nice

Thank you for taking care of this aspect, I am more than liking it, keep posts on these subjects coming, I am more than impressed..Gifts and gadgets sale thank you.

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
SmallBusinessNewz: Become A Partner
We want you!
Writing for SmallBusinessNewz is a great way to have your articles read by many business owners around the world. You'll also get the added benifit of helping others learn from your experiences.
Full Name:
Email:
Website:
All fields required. Actual article
submission begins on next page.
Visit the SmallbBusinessNewz Directory
Do you have a business site?
Submit your business related site FREE!
Accounting
Book Keeping, Training...

Advertising
PPC, Print, Banner...

Investing
VCs, Mutual Funds...
Brick and Mortar
Stores, Offices...

Research/Studies
Research, Data, Studies...

Tips/Tutorials
Tips, Advice, Tutorials...
» Submit your site «
DirectoryBlog.WebProNews
Latest News on: DirectoryBlog.WebProNews
Need Software For Your SMB? Look No Further!

Last week, WebProNews was privileged to conduct an interview via Skype with Alex Bard, the Vice President and General Manager of Desk.com, about its new cloud-based customer service software. This...
Subscribe to SBN


Send me relevant info

Get Your Site Submitted for Free in the World's Largest B2B Directory!

*Mandatory Field
* *

Free Downloads