6 reasons why you should sell a digital gift card

It happens to everyone now and then, forgetting to buy a present on time. Or maybe being unable to visit their uncle who lives so far away. That is why we have developed digital gift cards. 

Customers who buy them online receive it immediately as a pdf file in their email. This gift card includes a barcode plus an expiration date and is generated in the cash register system RetailVista. It works just like a normal gift card but is sold online. Have you wondered whether your customers would order such a digital gift card?     

Here are 6 reasons why you should offer digital gift cards in your own webshop. The figures below are based on 287 purchases of digital gift cards with RetailVista in webshops of garden centres.

 

1. Everyone is late sometimes

Why would you buy a digital gift card from a garden centre? As we wrote in the previous paragraph, you usually do that when you are too late. You wake up in the morning, have to go to a party and do not have any time (or inspiration) to buy a gift. 

Of all purchased digital gift cards at garden centres, about 20% is sold between 4 PM and 5.30 PM. Usually the time of day when you are preparing for the evening.

 

2. The average order amount

With an average of £30 the order amount is relatively high. Most likely, because no one wants to come off as stingy when you arrive at a party. Sometimes we even see peaks of £200 per gift card. That £30 is just one of the benefits, because every digital gift card that you sell will bring you another visitor. That visitor will often spend more than £30 or he might become a real fan of your garden centre. 

Whatever the outcome: £30 is already a great order amount.  
 

3. An opportunity to be creative

Your customers are not bound by fixed amounts when buying a digital gift card. You will find a lot of people ordering the same amount as the age of the birthday boy or girl, who they are giving the gift card to. £200 is not a great example of course, but a card of £41 is probably for someone who just turned 41. This makes giving a simple gift a lot more personal. 
 

4. Themed online gift cards

Another opportunity for personalisation is having themed gift cards. You can customise and present your digital gift card in many different shapes and sizes. The only thing you need is a PDF with good pictures and a nice font. The Garden Connect Platform will convert this PDF into a gift card. 

Examples of customer groups who are perfect for tailor-made gift cards:

• Barbecuing
• Mothers with children
• Grandparents who babysit their grandchildren
• Trendy women who love interior design

A nice layout makes it just a bit more enticing than a standard gift card.

 

5. Professional presents

Not only consumers like to give gift cards every now and then. Businesses want it just as much. Of the 287 orders we have analysed, we found that 9% was placed by business customers. These customers purchased 5 or more gift cards at the same time. 

Business customers are also interesting because they will give the digital gift card of your garden centre to their connections or employees. And those people are not necessarily customers of your garden centre (yet). In this way, you are able to draw new customers to your store.  

At one garden centre, we saw an order of 14 digital gift cards with a value of £40 each. Quite a nice amount, right? 
 

6. Full integration of your digital gift card in RetailVista

Last but not least it is good to know that the digital gift card is fully integrated with RetailVista. This means that you do not have to put in any extra work because the integration makes sure that everything works automatically. The processing of the order, the creation of the digital gift card in RetailVista, the shipment to the customer and the redeeming are completely automated. 

 

This makes the digital gift card a must-have for the webshop of your garden centre. It offers convenience for your existing customers, it brings in new customers and it hardly requires any extra work. 

So why not try it? Contact us and we gladly set it up for your garden centre.