Best Practice Tips for Gift Cards

As we get set to turn the calendar to 2020, we wanted to get out some best practice tips for Gift Cards.

The gift card concept evolved from gift certificates as branded cards designed to be used within a store network. Blockbuster video was the first retailer to bring Gift Cards to market and the idea quickly took hold. Fast forward to today, more than 50% of consumers will purchase a gift card during the holiday shopping season.

Card use has expanded from store-specific cards like Best Buy or Target to include the now popular card carrier branded gift cards from VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover that can be used anywhere. In fact, gift cards are so popular they have come to often replace the age-old favorite Christmas gift of cash.

One of the point-of-sale challenges for retailers processing gift cards is that gift cards are often used in combination with another tender when completing a transaction. This results from a split tender situation where you might purchase an item for $50 and have a gift card for $20 that covers only a portion of the price. It is good practice to rehearse these situations with your retail teams to make sure everyone is comfortable with your procedures for processing such a transaction.

Gift cards are typically anonymous and some online retailers don’t accept cards that are not registered to a billing address or a named individual. If you are an online retailer, it is a good idea to make sure your team is prepared to handle a situation where a card might be declined due to lack of information. There is a good article on this at GiftCards.com.

ABOUT US

The gift card industry is sure to be a fixture going forward, and Motus Financial is here to help with Gift Card services for businesses looking to brand their own cards. Motus Financial, located in Sun Prairie, WI provides Point-of-Sale (POS) technology solutions and credit card processing services. Locally-owned and operated Motus Financial provides a complete suite of POS technology services to assist merchants in processing payment from credit cards, debit cards, and checks.  Motus financial can also provide check processing as well as a customized gift card program for your business.

For more information, please contact us at 608-819-8666 or check out our website at www.motuscc.com and we look forward to assisting you.