February 14 is one of the most beautiful days of the year. It is a day that is outrightly dedicated to love. Is there a better time to gift something to your lover or to someone you love!

If you are a retail business, gift cards are your best friend for this special occasion. By using it in the right manner, you can get new customers as well as an increase in sales, and more.

Why does your business need gift cards this Valentine’s day?

If you look at Google Trends, you will find that the search for gift cards spike a few days before special days like Valentine’s day. The reason is that most consumers want to give gift cards to their loved ones as it is not only easier to buy, but it also gives the gift recipient to buy the products that they prefer. Millennials make up 37% of gift card buyers, according to InComm. These are also the main target audience of retailers for a holiday like Valentine’s day.

No matter what type of retail store you have, the chances of your sales picking up during the season of love is a given.

Below are a few other reasons that you should market your gift cards on Valentine’s day:

1. Helps you find new customers:

It is a great time to grow your customer base. During this period, there are a lot of consumers who are looking to buy interesting products, and one of the stores that they stumble upon could be yours. It is the right time for you to use gift cards to lure them in.



2. Increases sales:

Gift cards could be the holy grail during special days such as Valentine’s Day. Most customers are stressed about finding the right gift for their partners, and a gift card goes a long way in alleviating that. By giving their partners gift cards, the onus is on the recipient to buy what they love.

Not only is everyone happy here, but it also lets you get a recurring customer as the buyer and the recipient of the gift card will walk into the store. Also, if they don’t extinguish the amount of the gift card, they will come again.

3. Increases customer loyalty:

Getting your customers to feel connected with your brand is one of the most important factors to have for a brand. If your customers don’t feel a connection, they will take their business elsewhere at the first instance of any friction.

Gift cards can be laden with discounts and other special additions that will bring customers to your store again and again. Since physical gift cards also act as souvenirs, they will remind the gift card recipients about your store, and it is also a token of love from someone they care about deeply.

4. Generates useful data:

It helps you understand your customers in a better way. Using gift cards, you can collect valuable data about your customer’s spending patterns, where they are spending most of their money, and their demographics as well. You can use this data to make smarter business decisions.

One of the best parts about gift cards is that people pay you in advance to buy the gift card. Without even having sold a single inventory, you would have made sales. They are a great way to increase traction on your sales without doing anything extra.

All you need to do is to promote your gift cards during the Valentine’s season so that all your regular customers and prospective ones know that you are offering them and that there are special offers on it.

If you are an eCommerce business or have a retail store and you want to cash in on the hoopla surrounding Valentine’s day, here are some tips:

1. Invest in email marketing:

The benefits of email marketing are incredible. Valentine’s day is a wonderful opportunity for you to leverage your gift cards. You can add Valentine’s day theme for your email copies. Use subject lines that talk about romance or love. Make sure that you attract the audience enough to click on your link by luring them with discounts.

Make sure you design your emails around Valentine’s day, right from the graphics used to the headers, even the CTAs.

2. Invest in Valentine’s day-themed gift cards:

It is wise to create gift cards for special occasions, and Valentine’s day is one of those. We would advise you to design your gift cards with Valentine’s day being its theme. Allow your customers to add a personal touch by incorporating their messages. Come up with a clever copy for the gift card. Make sure that the design is incredibly attractive because the whole point of creating themed gift cards is that the recipient will keep them as a souvenir.



3. Encourage your employees to push more gift cards:

Whenever a customer walks into the store, your employees could talk to them about the gift cards that you have specially launched for Valentine’s day. Let the customers know of the extra benefits that they get to receive since it is a special occasion.

Ensure that your employees are well trained and have full knowledge about gift cards. You can reward employees who sell gift cards so that they feel enthused to sell more gift cards.

4. Include special offers for gift cards:

The best way to sell more gift cards is by luring your customers with the right kind of offers. Here are ideas of a few offers that you can include:

• Offer extra value to the gift card if it crosses a certain threshold. When a customer buys a gift card for $100, you can give them a $10 gift card that they can give to someone else.
• Offer gift cards for product returns. It will ensure that the money will come back to your business.
• Tie up with complementary businesses. For example, when a customer buys gift cards from your retail store, they can get a free massage from the spa nearby. The association with the other business should be in such a way that it is a win-win for everyone.
• Instead of discounts, offer gift cards.
• Offer freebies to customers who buy gift cards on Valentine’s day.

Conclusion:

There is no doubt about the spike in sales that businesses with gift cards get during the holiday season, especially so during Valentine’s day as well. A business that uses clever marketing campaigns to promote its gift cards will see it bear fruit.

If you are looking to equip your store with a gift card to cash in on the festivities of this wonderful day, get in touch with the good folks at 99minds. We are more than happy to set up gift cards for your business. Do not miss out on the huge opportunity of gift cards. Embrace them!