Running a gift or loyalty plastic card printing promotional program used to be something done on main frame computers. It became the niche for marketing assistance firms who sold you the encoded plastic cards and key tags, and then ran the authorization service via credit card readers for a per swipe or per transaction fee.
The printing of these magnetically encoded, numbered plastic cards and key tags was always the focus of the promotion and now the costs have become quite reasonable for them. What was needed was a way to break free of the cost per swipe associated with card swipe type promotions. The time has come.
Customizable and intuitive new software that runs on a standard PC has arrived. It enables you to issue, track, refill, recharge, debit, credit, and adjust parameters for the plastic cards and the whole system in plain English.
Now you run your own program and have all that customer data at your fingertips to do additional market planning from. Gift cards are a big part of retail and they really shine at holiday times in niche shoppes. Boutiques, liquor stores, jewelry sellers all have the best kind of shopping traffic to promote gift cards. If you’re in niche retail, you need to offer gift cards for the undecided and last minute shopper. Giving a gift card from a specialty shop isn’t considered as impersonal as giving cash or a department store plastic card as a gift.