Demand for E-Gift increases amongst UK retailers
14th March 2006 – Fleet, Hampshire. As the UK high street faces an increasing battle for its customers' disposable incomes, a number of more savvy retailers are taking notice of their US counterparts and, in particular, their use of electronic ("E-Gift") gift cards.
"US retailers have already cited an increase in gift sales of approximately 45 per cent* since replacing their paper gift vouchers with plastic E-Gift cards," commentated Mark McMurtrie, Marketing Director, The Logic Group. "UK retailers are now really starting to pick up on these new innovative card services."
"Our research has shown that nearly three out of five UK retailers are now planning to adopt a gift card platform," added Tony Craddock, CEO of E-Gift consultancy Giftex. "Initially, retailers are likely to launch gift cards in addition to their current voucher system but many are already launching them as their only offering."
Secure transaction specialist, The Logic Group, is at the forefront of E-Gift card adoption in the UK and ensuring their availability across multiple sales channels; the company's products are already relied upon by the majority of UK high-street retailers to process their credit card transactions. The Logic Group now offers a simple upgrade path, enabling E-Gift cards to be processed through the same systems, providing consolidated management information on top of the increased revenue streams.
"Our customers need to ensure that their card processing systems can easily adapt to both Chip & PIN and new card processing technologies, such as E-Gift systems," concluded Logic Group Marketing Director, Mark McMurtrie. "Scaleable, future-proof and cost-effective solutions are vital to enable them to manage the steady growth in transaction volumes and management information demands."
Habitat, with 91 stores worldwide including franchise partners, is one of the leading UK retailers who have worked closely with The Logic Group in the implementation of its ambitious E-Gift card programme. From Habitat's perspective, its previous paper schemes were labour-intensive to administer and prone to fraud. E-Gift cards have streamlined the company's administration and freed up vital resources, as well as providing a sophisticated system of tracking card redemptions and customer behaviour.
The result for Habitat has been a 30 per cent increase in the average transaction value of products bought with gift cards. Where gift vouchers had proved difficult to fit into customers' wallets and were often crumpled when they came to be redeemed, the new cards are easily carried and have been branded with a series of eye-catching designs.
The implementation was made all the easier for Habitat as it had already outsourced its card transaction processing to The Logic Group, whereby all card authorisation and settlement is handled at the Logic Group's secure data centres, where transactions are switched to the appropriate financial institution and to ValueLink, their selected gift card provider.
"Moving to a managed service has ensured resilience of our payment systems, freed up vital resources and opened up a broad range of services to us that are monitored and managed for us 24 hours a day in one go," noted Mandy Walker of Habitat UK.
Habitat is already planning further enhancements to its E-Gift card scheme, and customers can expect to see corporate E-Gift vouchers along with a new range of cards for special occasions, such as birthdays and weddings throughout 2006.
Note to Editors
About the Logic Group
The Logic Group manages information and transactions securely for large and medium sized businesses across its European home market. The company delivers unrivalled business value to its customers through the secure provision of card transaction processing and communications infrastructure services, together with delivering comprehensive management information and customer insight.
The group has won a number of major awards including the 2005 Queen's Award for Enterprise for the central role it played in the UK roll-out of EMV Chip & PIN.
