Advanced Merchant Group

Gift Cards

So, what is it that makes a gift card so powerful? Simple. FREE MONEY. The idea behind a gift card is to build customer lotyalty and retention while giving your customers the benefit of future delivery of your product. The Gift Card Industry is still in its infancy, but has created a world-wide demand for stored-value cards of all kinds. In just a few short years, the the gift card market became a $65 billion Industry.

Merchants of every kind — restaurants, bookstores, day spas, sporting goods stores, whatever you can think of — are creating tremendous success with a variety of stored-value card programs. So get out of the box and in to the new Gift Card Market.

Loyalty Cards

Loyalty cards began about a decade ago in Europe, specifically in U.K. supermarket and other retail chains. The concept is to award consumers points, based on money spent, toward gifts, travel (hotels, airlines, rental cars), money back, etc. This became the core of frequent buyer/shopper programs for many of these companies, and they expanded to include multiple retailers in a city, town, or community. They are now used by pure play online, clicks and mortar, and bricks and mortar retailers; and they even have some b-to-b applications.

When customers apply for the card, they complete a demographic profile questionnaire which, along with their specific purchases, help merchants target promotions (using direct marketing tools like mail, email, online/offline newsletters, etc.) and tailor communications based on their profiles. The database not only helps identify the most valuable customers, but it makes marketing programs more cost effective by tracking purchase recency and frequency. They can also be used to identify former customers for promotion.

To get started, or for more information, complete our free online pre-app by clicking here, or call us at 877.997.9473.