Think of digital gift cards as valuable low-hanging fruit. When set up correctly and targeted to the right customer, they practically do the work for you. Something as simple as eGift Cards can ramp up sales and can ultimately add a nice boost to your bottom line. That’s because there’s a huge market for gift cards. According to a recent report, gift card sales hit nearly £7 billion in 2020 and forecasted to increase by 25 per cent by 2025.
Read on for more information on Square eGift Cards for small business and how to run a successful digital gift card program that feels right for your shop.
How to set up digital gift cards for your business
With Square’s eGift Card program you can make digital gift cards for your small business. Decide whether you want to work with predesigned templates or create your own custom look. There’s no subscription or redemption fee for eGift Cards. Once your business’s digital gift card program is up and running, you’ll receive transfers for those gift card activations in as little as one to two business days.
How to build and run a successful online gift card program
To be successful at selling gift cards, you’ll need a strategy. Here’s a step-by-step guide.
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Determine your target customer. Will your eGift Card program be more attractive to new or returning customers? You can use your Square Dashboard to create business reports and review spending habits and get insights about how you might best utilise eGift Cards depending on who’s shopping, how, and when.
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Set some goals. Look to your Square Analytics to determine estimated quarterly sales for your business and then come up with a goal for digital gift card sales.
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Decide where to sell your digital gift cards. If you’re selling online, make sure you create an electronic gift card section in the main navigation on your site. The more visible your eGift Cards, the better positioned you are for success.
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Determine your inventory. After you’ve done your homework and have a solid idea of estimated sales for the year, it’s time to figure out the amounts to be loaded on your digital gift cards. By default, the Square Point of Sale app will display £10, £20, £25, and £50 amounts to be loaded onto an eGift Card. £20 is by far the most popular digital gift card amount purchase, but sometimes you need to customise the amount to more closely align with your customers spending habits. If you’d like to set your own default amounts and turn off the option to load custom amounts, you can follow these step to learn how to make digital gift cards for your business:
Toggle Allow Custom Amounts to Off to disable this option in the Square app. Visit the Gift Cards section of your online Square Dashboard > Settings.
Under eGift Card Amounts enter your preferred default values > Save.
Toggle Allow Custom Amounts to Off to disable this option in the Square app.
Learn more on how to use eGift cards here.
- Manage your inventory. Throughout the year, keep close track of how many online gift cards you’ve sold in relation to your product inventory. You never want to risk having to turn a customer away because you goofed on supply. Digital gift cards are integrated right into your till system and Dashboard, so you can sell, redeem, track, and reload without any additional tools. Plus, eGift Cards show up in all your reporting. You can even export a full report of eGift Card sales right from your Square Dashboard. Additionally, think about the price points of the eGift Cards you’re offering (£20 are the most popular amount) and the merchandise that your business sells for those amounts. Remember that you will only pay a 1.75% fee when your customer buys an eGift Card in-store, or a fee of 1.4% + 25p for transactions with UK cards and 2.5% + 25p for transactions with non-UK cards when your customer purchases one online through your eGift Card Order Site.
So, it makes sense for your team to sell more eGift cards at the register. Use Square’s inventory management to make sure you’ll have your most popular inventory in stock when customers will be using their eGift cards.
- Monitor customer behavior. Take the guesswork out of selling by getting to know your customers better. Square’s email marketing and customer engagement tools help you build a customer directory right from your register and provide valuable customer insights that help inform your business decisions. You can monitor private feedback that customers give through digital receipts. Meanwhile, Square Analytics shows you behaviours and patterns — how much customers spend and how often they return — arming you with the details you need to make the best decisions. Plus, Square’s free Dashboard app means that you can do all this no matter where you are.