Main Benefits
Your customers will feel special and appreciated if you give them a gift card for a special occasion. Celebrating something else than birthdays will help you stand out. Gift cards are basically free money and generate an endowment effect on customers. As they receive money (instead of working for it) they are more likely to make impulse purchases with it (spending more in your store than they would have planned if they were spending their hard-earned money). They will likely spend the gift card in your store as they would feel a loss if they let it expire (loss aversion). Giving a gift card for a special occasion is using shopper psychology to your benefit. Read more about marketing psychology in our guide.
Program rules
Best Practices
- You can celebrate customer’s birthdays, marriage anniversaries, their kids birthdays, dog birthdays or any other event you are collecting data about.
- Do not repeat the same campaign every year consistently as then your customers may expect the gift card and withdraw from shopping at your store for planned purchases, waiting for the gift card.
- Set up the minimum order value on which the gift card can be used if you want to ensure customers spend more at your store and not just come for free credit.
- You can vary the amount of the gift card balance by the customer segment, for example giving a higher balance to VIP customers or loyalty program members.