Why You Need To Sell Gift Cards On Your Magento Store

Gift Cards.

Have you thought about offering them to your customers?

Well don’t just think about it, do it!

Gift cards are a great way to bring in more cash, boost customer loyalty, and reach new customers.

Not sure that gift cards are right for you?

In this blog post, we’ll take a look at some statistics that prove that gift cards are a great investment and discuss how you can implement gift cards on your Magento store. 

Let’s get into it.

Gift Card Statistics You Need To Know 

First, let’s start by taking a look at a few statistics related to gift cards, consumer spending, and eCommerce.

• Gift cards are the #1 most requested holiday gift. About 60% of surveyed consumers said they would prefer to receive a gift card instead of other gifts during the holiday season.
  
• The average value of a gift card is around $40-$50
• 90% of gift cards are spent within 60 days of the recipient receiving the gift card
  
• 74% of customers say they “regularly” buy gift cards from small businesses
  
• 81% of gift card buyers purchase gift cards for birthdays, and 67% of customers purchase gift cards for holidays like Christmas. Other top occasions for gift cards include “Thank You” gifts, graduation gifts, weddings, and anniversaries. 

Haven’t had enough yet? If you want to look through a boatload of other statistics related to gift cards and how consumers spend money on them, take a look at this post from GiftCards.com – it’s easily the most comprehensive resource out there.

The Benefits Of Selling Gift Cards To Your Customers

So, we’ve discussed some of the basics about how consumers spend on gift cards. But why should you sell them to your customers? How can you benefit from implementing gift cards in your Magento shop? Let’s take a look at just a few of the benefits. 

• You profit immediately, enhancing cash flow – When you sell a gift card, you get the cash for the sale immediately. This can really help with cash flow, particularly if your store tends to do more sales during a particular season.
  If you sell outdoor gear, for example, gift cards can help you bring in more income during the slower winter season. Your customers can purchase gift cards and give them to others, and the recipients can redeem them whenever they want – but you get the sale right away!
  

• Gift card users typically “overspend” their cards, leading to higher profits – When you get a gift card, do you make sure you spend less than the value of the card? Or do you “overspend” the card – maxing out its value, and paying the remaining balance with cash?
  If you’re like 59% of consumers, you’ll choose the latter option. Most people who buy a gift card will spend more than its value – and that translates directly into higher revenue and profitability for your eCommerce store.

• A gift card can help you reach new customers – Gift cards are an excellent way to spread word about your store organically. Customers who love your products and services can purchase them to give away to others – who can see your products for themselves, and start shopping at your store.
• Take advantage of holidays & special occasions – If you want to boost sales during the winter holiday season or during other special occasions like graduation season, gift cards are a great option – particularly if you have customized, seasonal gift cards that you can send to customers.

For these reasons and quite a few more, selling gift cards at your Magento eCommerce store is a fantastic idea. So let’s get into the details now, and discuss the types of gift cards that are available by default on Magento – and how to implement them

Types Of Magento Gift Cards That Are Available

First, let’s take a look at the types of gift cards you can implement on a vanilla Magento 2 store. They consist of: 

• Virtual – Virtual gift cards, also known as “e-gift” cards are emailed to the recipient, and do not have a physical card. They’re a simple, easy way that your customers can buy gift cards and send them to others.
  

• Physical – Physical cards are printed and mass-produced, and use unique codes that are redeemed when shopping at your store. Physical gift cards will need to be mailed to the recipient, just like any other item.
• Combined – As the name suggests, these gift cards combine the characteristics of both virtual and physical gift cards.

If you’re just getting started with gift cards at your Magento store, it’s easier to offer virtual gift cards than it is to offer physical/combined gift cards, so we recommend offering them first. Then, if your gift cards are selling well, you can consider adding physical or combined cards to your store as well. 

Setting Up Magento Gift Cards – How To Get Started

The basic process of setting up Magento gift cards is quite easy. This step-by-step guide from Magento is a very useful resource, and will walk you through the basic procedure you’ll need to go through when setting up gift cards on your store for the first time. 

You will also need to follow this guide to set up a gift card “code pool” – unique gift card numbers that will be issued when a customer purchases a gift card.

In addition, this guide to the gift card workflow is also useful if you have questions about how the gift card redemption process works for customers. 

Add Gift Cards To Your Magento Store – Enhance Cash Flow And Increase Profits

Selling gift cards on your Magento store is easy and doesn’t take long to set up – and gift card functionality is native to the platform, so you won’t have to worry about paying high fees for an extension or any other application.

Ready to get started? Follow the instructions above, and you’re sure to be able to boost your sales with gift cards. Want more tips on increasing eCommerce sales, marketing your products, and other such topics? Take a look at the 121eCommerce blog now!