In the weeks running up to Black Friday, merchants look for any opportunities to stand out from the crowd. After all, with so much up for grabs to see the year out in success, even small changes have the potential to make a big impact.
While large changes are typically out of reach the closer we get to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, there are still some things merchants can do to really bolster their BFCM offering. And it may be something they hadn’t even considered - gift cards.
While it certainly isn’t the first tool that comes to mind when you think of Black Friday, gift cards have the power to not only grab the attention of potential customers, but to incentivize existing customers, increase cart spend, and attract higher value customers.
Here are 5 features found in the Govalo app that Shopify merchants can use to stand out this BFCM.
How gift cards enhance BFCM offers
Let’s start by looking at how gift cards in some cases may be the better option to complement your Black Friday plans compared to things like free shipping or loyalty points. The primary reason is expectation and customer satisfaction. Customers these days overwhelmingly expect free shipping as standard, and they expect it to be fast. This makes free shipping a less exciting incentive during periods like Black Friday weekend when the competition is already so high - if anything, customers will look for who can ship the fastest. There is also greater potential for things to go wrong with incentives like this. The holiday season is notorious for supply chain and logistics issues. So you might offer free shipping as an incentive over BFCM, only for the orders to become delayed in transit. And if that happens, nearly a quarter of customers say they wouldn’t shop with a brand again. 17% would even discourage others from shopping with that brand at all.
With gift cards, you won’t be facing the same potential impact on retention and customer satisfaction. After all, the issues that arise with gift cards are typically quick and easy to fix - an email accidentally deleted, or a code not working, for example. They’re also seen to have inherent, tangible value versus something like free shipping or loyalty points. It’s a cash value they can use or give to someone else to use, rather than points that they can’t use right away or give away, or shipping that they expect to receive anyway.
#1 - Rewards
Customers like to be rewarded for making purchases, and the benefit to brands is that rewards can encourage customers to spend more. With Govalo, you can offer gift cards as in-cart rewards.*
Using this feature, you can set thresholds for receiving rewards along with the reward that can be earned. For example, if a customer spends over $100 they get a $10 gift card. This will be automatically added to their cart, and if they qualify for a higher reward the original lower-tier gift card reward be replaced with that higher-tier reward.
Over BFCM, you can run a promotion either as a main offer or as complementary to your Black Friday deals. This can then help to boost cart spend and AOV, while giving customers the kind of rewards they look for from brands.
#2 - Gift cards as loyalty perk
Black Friday weekend is obviously a great opportunity for new customer acquisition, but it’s equally an opportunity to really engage your existing customer base. You could offer a gift card as a loyalty perk either before or after Black Friday to your existing customers. If before, then you can send an email with a gift card to use on BFCM weekend only, adding a time-limited element that will encourage them to use the card. Or if you plan to offer the reward only after Black Friday, you can let them know in advance via email that if they buy over BFCM they’ll receive a $x gift card to spend on their next purchase.
#3 - Gift cards as a bonus BFCM offer
Discounts and money-off are the expectation over Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Customers are used to the kind of deal types they’ll see over the weekend, so merchants need to have a little something extra to stand out. Something as small as a $5 gift card could be what seals the deal if a customer is trying to decide to buy from your store or a competitor.
Here are a few ways you can use gift cards as part of a Black Friday deal:
- - Buy-one-get-one on gift cards i.e. buy a $20 gift card, and they’ll get a $10 bonus gift card.
- - Spend $x, receive a gift card worth $y - this can be done using Govalo’s rewards feature.
- - Free gift card with every purchase without a spend requirement, or free gift card with certain products or categories
The benefit here is that customers get that instant Black Friday buzz of getting a great deal, but they also then have a reason to return to your store later to use the gift card. So essentially you get the Black Friday order with retention baked right in.
#4 - Out-of-stock feature
Black Friday and the holiday season move at breakneck speed, with higher volumes of customers visiting your store and purchasing more than other times of the year. That increased volume and purchase speed means it’s more likely you’ll see products go out of stock. And if that happens over BFCM weekend, it might mean customers simply move on to other retailers. It can be disappointing for customers to put the effort into researching your products, waiting for your deals, and then missing out. To mitigate that, Govalo has an out-of-stock feature that will display the option to purchase a gift card if a product or variant isn’t currently available.
This gives customers who may be purchasing gifts an alternative that they wouldn’t have otherwise and potentially save the sale. You could even combine it with a gift card deal, such as a top-up or buy-one-get-one so the customer is even more tempted to purchase.
#5 - Bulk gift card purchasing
It’s not just individual customers buying for another individual this holiday season, but corporate and bulk gift buying. It could be buying for a team or organization, buying multiple gifts for clients, or employee perks. Whatever the case, this time of year is also valuable for attracting those customers. Being prepared for their needs is just as important, and if you make the process as easy as possible it could convince them to purchase from your store over a competitor.
Govalo comes with the ability to buy gift cards in bulk through your normal checkout process*. Rather than getting in touch with your team to arrange the order, customers simply need to upload the details of their gift cards using a simple to use CSV template. Govalo will then organize and add all the gift cards to their cart, arranged by card value. Then they can complete checkout as normal.
If you’re planning to run some kind of promo that includes gift cards, then this is a must-have if you want to try and snag some of those bulk buy customers.
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Black Friday seems to get bigger and bigger every year. That means the competition grows with it, so standing out is even more important than before. By adding in some unique gift card features, you can make your BFCM offering even more attractive to your potential customers.
To learn more about Govalo, check out our listing in the Shopify App Store.
*Available on Govalo Premium and Enterprise plans