Gift card lessons from M&S

Thursday, 27 January 2011

The oldest and the best!

OK, so most retailers don't have the big stores, the big budgets, international presence or hundreds of gift card designs to suit every recipient, but there are lessons we can alltake from Marks & Spencer, purveyor of fine gift cards (among other things!)

If you already have a gift card programme, the tips below will help you to sell more.

And if you don't sell gift card today, the same tips should provide you with good reason for a last minute look at how you could deploy them in the lead-up to Valentine's Day. 
 
Design
M&S have a lot of designs - there's something for everyone.  But if you don't have the budget to produce card designs for every conceivable customer type, you just need to think a bit smarter. 

Ensure your card design is sufficiently generic that it meets the needs of multiple audiences (but without being so generic that it appeals to no-one.)

Or what about having one card design and a selection of different carriers to make them relevant to different audiences (or maybe even a box, which you can charge for, further increasing the value of the gift and the value of your sale!)

Merchandising
Again, taking a leaf from M&S's book, make sure you merchandise your cards at every opportunity.  You can find theirs at every till and in lots of places around the store. 

As there is no value on your gift cards until they are loaded, you should merchandise them like every other product you offer.  Spread them around your store as much as possible - the more your customers see them the more they are likely to buy!

Advertising
Ensuring your customers know you offer gift cards is key to selling them - there's no point keeping them in the till (and no need either!).  And we're not talking about national TV and print media campaigns!  A simple poster in your shop window will draw a certain amount of attention as will flyers or an advert in your local newspaper.  Or why not print up a flyer (print is super-cheap at the moment) and get a staff member or two to hand them out outside your shop during quiet periods?

Gift cards offer you a real opportunity to significantly increase the sales that you may have experienced with paper vouchers.  Hopefully, these hints and tips will help you to do more with them this Valentine's D.

SMcI