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With the holidays approaching, now is a great time for businesses to start thinking about tapping into the $124 billion-a-year gift card industry. Gift cards have long been an effective way to boost holiday sales. For small businesses unsure where to start with the marketing and selling of gift cards, fortunately there are a whole host of gift card tools available for small businesses.

Online gift cards — aka eGift cards — appeal to many consumers who can purchase such cards at the last minute, even on Christmas morning! Hence offering eGift cards provides a cost-effective and lucrative opportunity for small businesses.

Small businesses can start selling and promoting their online gift cards instantly with Giftly. Giftly is a custom eGift card platform which enables business owners to create, sell and market their own eGift cards. Small businesses can also track eGift card transactions in real-time using the Giftly program.

Small businesses can sell gift cards, both in person and online, with Square. Whether it’s eGift cards online or plastic gift cards in store, Square provides a complete gifting program solution for retailers. For businesses that already accept payment with Square, the gift card program works seamlessly with Square point of sale and the Square dashboard.

Roller develops inclusive online gift card software designed to enable small businesses to create additional revenue through gift cards that are personalized for their brand and customers. Roller’s gift card app allows retailers to sell digital or physical gift cards directly from their websites. The gift card app also provides businesses with the tools required to manage the redemption process.

Similar to Giftly, Yiftee is an eGift program designed to help small businesses increase revenue with online gift cards. The platform enables small businesses to create instant, custom-branded eGift cards, and provide cost-effective, pay-for-performance promotions that businesses can control. Businesses can also benefit from reports that measure and optimize campaigns with real-time data.

Of course, not all consumers shop online and not everyone wants to receive an eGift card. Hence small retailers may want to make physical, plastic gift cards part of their holiday marketing and sales-boosting efforts.

Duracard creates custom plastic gift cards, printed with a magnetic stripe or barcode to which businesses can apply a dollar value. With Duracard, retailers can control the value of the card electronically, which generates a renewable balance and creates opportunities for repeat shopping and the nurturing of customer loyalty.

Givex offers retailers the opportunity to enable customers to buy and receive gifts cards online or directly on their mobile devices with eGift cards. By creating innovations in gift card technology, businesses can even create their own branded mobile wallet for convenient payments with Givex.

Regardless of whether a business requires 10 plastic gift cards or a million, Plastic Printers provides comprehensive support in building and maintaining a cost-effective gift card program. Plastic Printers’ custom gift cards are compatible with any point-of-sale system. Businesses can create a personalized, branded look by including their company logo on Plastic Printers’ custom gift cards.

My1Stop.com offers online printing services for businesses, including custom gift card printing. My1Stop.com’s gift cards come printed with a stripe of barcode to which retailers then apply the cash amount. The company provides a fast delivery of gift cards, as well as an easy online ordering service and competitive, instant pricing. Businesses can use My1Stop.com’s templates to ensure the highest quality of art and design is used to craft eye-catching and unique gift cards to portray a business in the most professional of lights.

Plastic Card City provides businesses on a budget the chance to offer customers printed gift cards, designed to build brand awareness and increase revenue. Plastic Card Printing is committed to ensuring gift cards stand out by being strikingly designed and durable, the company says. These specialists in the creation of physical gift cards for retailers claim to provide businesses with a quality gift card program at the lowest possible cost.

When it comes to any promotional, branded products for businesses, Vistaprint is a well-known name.  Vistaprint provides gift certificates for businesses designed to help customers spread the word about your  brand. Vistaprints’ gift certificates can be personalized by using the company’s templates with the brand’s logo, text and photos.

With around 80 percent of consumers having either received or given a gift card within the last year, your business may want to start utilizing the profit-boosting benefits of gift cards ahead of the holidays?

Gift Card Photo via Shutterstock 5 Comments ▼

Thank you for this list. Our company works with a small non-profit that has been looking at setting up gift cards for their gift shop. I have already forwarded this information on them.

I here Yiftee is going out of business… Had a layoff of all but two employees… No sales team… etc… it’s a shame…

I am wondering how to make my own cards when needed. I want a card that swipes like a credit card and brings up their account with me. I ask making my own software but I don’t know hardware. And I don’t need something to print the whole card just code information into the card. Is there anything I can buy to help me do that?

why not just buy a software, install it on your computer and find a gift card manufacturer to do the gift card for you ? i think total cost is smaller than ask someone develop a software/app. and you don’t even need to have special knowledge of operation.

And I don’t need something to print the whole card just code information into the card. Is there anything I can buy to help me do that?

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