Posts Tagged ‘gift cards’
Tips for Selling Gift Cards or Gift Certificates
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
Buying for friends and family members has become increasingly hard, particularly for those that have everything. Thus, more and more people are turning to gift cards or gift certificates. You own your business and want to tap into this seemingly profitable venture of offering gift cards and gift certificates.
While it may seem that gift cards or even gift certificates are a last resort for shoppers, they can be a good alternative for both the purchaser and receiver because there is nothing to return.
Below are tips on how to get started with offering gift cards and gift certificates, both online and in your retail store.
First you need to decide what style of card or certificate you would like to offer. Make sure that the gift cards and certificates include your logo, so that people will know exactly where the card is from.
Whether the cards will be activated online or in your store, ensure that an activation code is given to the customer. This will ensure that there was actually a sale for the gift card, saving both you and the recipient of the card potential headaches and embarrassment.
If you are offering gift certificates, offering specific denominations or allowing customers to select the desired amount are options to consider, and which might be easier, particularly if you are selling them online. Moreover, having an established numbering system will reduce the chances of fraud. When offering gift cards for purchase over the internet, always ask the buyer for more information. This will help reduce the chances of theft occurring, as scammers will usually only have a credit card number and no other information, such as the card member’s name or the security code on the back of the card.
Prior to setting up a gift card or gift certificate system, ensure that all employees have been trained on the system of how the gift card or certificates are to be issued and redeemed. Additionally, it is a good idea to offer a credit system for the remaining amount. Most people do not want to have to search for something extra when they have chosen an item to purchase but are required to spend all the gift card or certificate in one shopping experience.
Also it is always a good idea to suggest to the buyer to keep their receipt in case of a defective card or other problems that could arise with the card. It is also important to ensure that the cards can be redeemed for products in your store. Nothing is more frustrating than having a gift card for something where the recipient has to put in money in order to buy something.
Offering gift cards and gift certificates is not the end-all-be-all for moving inventory quickly, but it does provide an avenue for customers when they cannot find the right gift-and you still receive a sale out of the deal.
Tags: advice, Generating More Sales, gift cards, gift certificates, larry Slusser, Sales, tips
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Lessons From Starbucks: Thinking Big While Keeping it Small
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
If your small business is growing rapidly and you have visions of multiple locations and franchises, that’s terrific. However, take a lesson from corner coffee shop turned corporate giant Starbucks, and don’t forget what made your company so popular in the first place.
Less than a month ago, after showing the weakest sales period in the company’s history, Starbucks announced that it will close 100 stores. This was shocking news considering in the 1990s the company was opening a new shop every workday - and the rapid growth continued well into the 2000s.
So what happened? Where did Starbucks go wrong?
Quite simply, Starbucks went from having a home-away-from-home feel to more of a corporate giant, selling music and Wi-Fi and putting the company’s bottom line in front of their customers. In addition, they stopped making their espressos by hand, switching to robot-like machines that make drinks with an assembly line-like feel.
Remember back when having a Starbucks in your town was something of an elite status? Now what town, rest stop, airport, Target, and Barnes & Nobel doesn’t have one? In fact, what two-block radius of any urban or suburban area isn’t armed with their own personal Starbucks? Comedian Lewis Black put it best when he said the end of the universe as we know it was in Houston, Texas, where there is indeed a Starbucks across the street from a Starbucks .
In a race to please stockholders and board members, Starbucks grew too fast. They put profits and efficiency first and lost sight of what their customers once found so darn endearing about them. Back in the day, every Starbucks store was run with the feel of an independent, local coffee shop. They sometimes had local musicians playing or weekly game nights. They had neighborhood postings on their corkboard and silly chalk drawings on their “Today’s Special” menu board. There were lots of big comfy chairs with magazines and newspapers scattered about and lots of chit chatting going on - even the baristas were fun and talkative with customers, and many even knew them by name.
Now take a walk into one of your many local Starbucks and you just won’t have that same sort of fun-loving, fuzzy-warm feeling. All those big comfy chairs? Well, you might see just one or two remaining - they needed the room for sales racks to sell CDs, iTunes gift cards and ground coffee. What about the neighborhood activities? It’s hard to cater to a neighborhood with three other Starbucks locations within walking distance of each other. With so many Starbucks to choose from, customers tended not to have a “favorite” store anymore, they just popped in whichever one was nearest when they needed a caffeine boost. As corporate pushed for efficiency, baristas had less time to chat and get to know their could-have-been-loyal customers, or even make drinks with the same quality Starbucks had become known for back in the day.
What happened to the customers?
You can bet that other coffee shop entrepreneurs learned from Starbucks’ early days and started running their own local shops like funky little coffeehouses, putting their customers and their coffee at the forefront. These local shops started to win the war against Starbucks, offering fresh roasted beans, handmade espresso drinks, and most of all an inviting and cozy atmosphere that surrounded customers with warmth and enjoyment. Just like it felt when you walked into the very first Starbucks in your town.
What growing small businesses can learn from Starbucks
If your business is doing wonderfully and you have plans to branch out and grow, it’s easy to try to streamline the processes that made your company so popular in the first place. Before you make any changes to the original framework of your company, think carefully about each. If you still believe that making a certain modification is the best thing to do, then test it first and see how the customers respond. It’s much easier to find out after a month that customers dislike the new change, then after investing thousands in making it permanent. Change can definitely be good, but change can also ruin what was once a very good thing.
Tags: advice, Carrie Hinkel, CDs, expanding, gift cards, Growing Your Business, iTunes, starbucks, strategy, tips
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