Why Selling Gift Cards Is A Must In The Fourth Quarter

Welcome to the first of October! As business owners all over Canada are well aware, it’s a pretty special day today. Today marks not only the beginning of a new month. It’s the start of the final quarter of the year.

You likely don’t need to be reminded that the final quarter of every year involves the busiest shopping season of the year. Before you know it, holiday shopping will be underway! And that present numerous opportunities for retailers to pull in big bucks.

Don’t wait until the holidays to begin selling gift cards.

If you’re really interested in pulling in big bucks (and why wouldn’t you be?), there’s no time to hesitate in adding gift cards to your list of available items. If you haven’t already taken advantage of selling gift cards in yours store, make sure you don’t allow the fourth quarter of 2018 to go by without selling this highly popular gift. It should go without saying that gift cards are huge sellers during the upcoming holiday season.

On VendHQ.com, Francesca Nicasio warns retailers to not wait until the holiday season to start selling gift cards. “While holidays and special events are the most popular times for buying gift cards, you shouldn’t wait until these busy shopping seasons to offer them,” she writes, “Big retail events are already hectic enough as is, and the last thing you want is to implement a brand new program or retrain employees right before (or in the middle of) a busy shopping season.”

Be sure to inform your customers about your gift cards.

Yes, gift cards are popular sellers during the fourth quarter of every year. But don’t just assume your gift cards will sell if you don’t let your customers know that you have them for sale. Be sure to put up signage in-store, send out email newsletters and update your website so that everyone who comes in contact with your business is well aware that gift cards are available.

“You can’t just offer gift cards and expect customers to suddenly flock to your store to buy them,” says Nicasio, “As with any initiative, you need to invest the time and resources putting your gift card program out there. Otherwise, the money you spent on gift card technology and materials would simply go to waste.”

Order your gift cards now!

In case we haven’t already made it clear, there’s really no time to waste when it comes to selling and marketing gift cards. To reiterate, the fourth quarter of 2018 has started today. Not only should you order gift cards for your store right away, you should make sure that you order enough of a supply to meet your upcoming demand.

“One mistake that many merchants tend to make is placing an ordering for a small batch of cards thinking that it will be enough to last until the new year,” notes Garbo Kwan on GiveX.com, “Many times, merchants will realize mid-October that they are running really low! Due to the high numbers of shoppers and last-minute purchases, always make sure that more cards are accounted for.”

For information about the electronic gift cards offered by Canadian POS, call us at 1-877-748-2884 or email us at info@localhost.