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| E- Gift Cards |
In recent years, the US has seen an explosion in the use of electronic gift cards, with a survey finding that 45% of the population had purchased a gift card in 2003, compared to 23% in 2002. With the fast take-up of gift cards now following suit in the UK market, The Logic Group has enhanced its industry leading Solve authorisation and validation product to enable it to accept E-Gift transactions from a choice of leading providers. This integration of E-Gift with card processing allows retailers to take advantage of a fully integrated payment architecture, offering faster transaction times and consolidated management information, as well as avoiding the need for duplicate systems.
E-Gift has been designed to overcome many of the limitations and difficulties retailers have experienced with the use of paper-based voucher schemes. In particular, paper schemes suffer from problems of shrinkage and the lack of any simple means of tracking redemption. By contrast, electronic gift cards have been designed to drive out shrinkage and fraud costs, to be quickly processed in the same way as any other form of plastic card and to provide real-time information on customer purchasing.
The experience of the US market has also shown E-Gift cards to carry a number of value-added benefits, including use for staff discount programmes, employee incentive programmes, credit notes and refunds. E-Gift cards have a higher perceived value than paper vouchers or cash incentives (due to their resemblance to a credit card), leading to improved customer loyalty, increased store footfall and higher impulse purchasing. Cards can be custom-branded to reinforce retailer brand awareness and can be easily integrated with loyalty programmes. The overall result is a much higher return on investment than paper-based schemes; figures in the order of a 60% increase in gift sales following switching to gift cards have been cited by many US retailers.
E-Gift cards are only activated at the time of purchase, and the transactions processed in real-time from the Point of Sale. This allows the card to be widely displayed throughout the store and at the paypoint without risk of theft. Each time the customer wishes to use the card, it is simply processed in the same manner as other cards. The transaction details and authorisation request are then passed by the retailer's PoS systems to Solve/SE, which handles all communications with the appropriate E-Gift acquirer service. A response is then sent to authorise or decline the transaction, as appropriate.
| E-Gift Solution Features and Benefits |
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Integrated solution offering unified card handling - no duplicate systems |
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Reduced time and costs compared to a bespoke developed solution |
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Added value service in addition to existing retailer activities |
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Greater return on investment in comparison to paper based schemes |
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Improved service and faster transaction times due to automated transaction processing; leading to increased revenue |
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Retailer gift cards have a higher perceived value than paper vouchers or other cash incentives |
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Increased store footfall, customer loyalty, 'share of wallet' and impulse purchasing |
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Accurate, real-time information on customer purchasing e.g. ability to track redemptions across multiple locations or environments |
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Easy integration with store card and loyalty programmes |
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Increased opportunities for targeted marketing campaigns by offering tangible rewards for customer loyalty |
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As the card must be activated to become valuable, the risk of fraudulent vouchers is reduced, enabling retailers to use gift cards for in-store merchandising opportunities |
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Reduced accounting and administration costs in comparison to paper based schemes |
| To view the E-Gift Product Sheet click here.. |
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| To view excepts from The Giftex European Gift Card Research Report click here.. |
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