Gift cards are a great deal for businesses, guaranteeing someone will spend the money at your tanning salon. Plus, gift cards have the potential to bring in new customers as well. In addition, over 50% of consumers will spend more than the amount on their gift cards. Gift cards can boost your overall sales.

People love to give and receive gift cards. Gift cards are still the most popular gifts because they are easy to purchase. The best part is gift cards can be used directly and tracked in Tan-Link—and the gift cards can even be reused. Thus, making it possible to sell each gift card several times (and lowering your cost per card). Tan-Link has partnered with Plastic Printers to help streamline your gift card purchases.

Gift cards are usually impulse buys. Someone has a great experience at a salon, remembers a special occasion or birthday and decides it is easier to give a gift card.

Far too often, salons will buy many gift cards—and then store them out of sight or under the counter. That is a huge mistake because if your customers are unable see your gift cards, they will not think you have them. The easier gift cards are to buy, the more customers will be inspired to buy them.

Since gift cards are usually an impulse buy, it is essential to allow customers to see them. If your gift cards are already in a visible location, think about ways to make them even more eye-catching from custom displays or inserts. Use gift card displays with inserts that you can change whenever gift card sales decline. Plus, use variable printing to create card designs for occasions ranging from weddings to seasonable holidays. Switching the cards frequently and signage will bring more attention to the need.

Instead of just ringing up gift cards for the amount requested, think about promotions you can run to get customers to spend more money buying gift cards. The average amount on gift card purchases is $44, which means many customers are purchasing smaller gift cards of $25 or lower. Most customers, however, will plan to buy gift cards for multiple friends or family members.

A great marketing tool and very effective gift card promotion is offering customers an extra gift card value when they purchase a certain amount. For example, buy $100 and get an additional $25 or $50 and get an extra $10. This will encourage your customers to “consolidate” their gift card shopping at your salon — either because they have an additional gift to give or because they want to spend the $25 on themselves!

Close to 40% of gift cards purchased will not use the card’s total value, and the average customer will send an extra 25% on their purchase when redeeming a gift card.

Running promotions like this will allow your salon to post promotional signs about the gift card sale, making your gift cards more visible to customers.

Gift cards do not have to be gifted. Instead, start thinking that every gift card purchase will be a customer who is essentially guaranteed to spend the money on the card. In addition, giving refunds or store credit can be crucial as well, for example; if a customer is beyond the 30-day return window, or has lost a receipt, consider offering them a gift card instead of denying a refund. This will help your salon become more customer-focused and encourage them to return. In most cases, the customer will even turn around and use that gift card to make a new purchase.

Gift cards can also be used to reward customers for their purchases. If you have a loyalty program, you can give customers a gift card once they have spent a certain amount at your salon. You can also run promotions at your salon for certain times of the year.

If you want to purchase gift cards, we have partnered with Plastic Printers to help streamline this. Check out the new link here.