Gift Cards Reduce Returns & Increase Sales

Are you still not selling gift cards because your current POS software can’t handle it? You are losing sales and increasing your product returns. With gift cards the consumer can purchase what they want and they will usually spend more than the value on the card. ProphetLine POS Software has built in gift card processing through its payment processing partner, Mercury Pay, and they do not charge any transaction fees. Below is an article from the National Retail Federation.

As gift cards become more popular during the holiday season, consumers said they are actually returning fewer items than in previous years, according to NRF’s Holiday Returns Survey, conducted by BIGresearch. The survey, which polled 7,982 consumers from Oct. 31-Nov. 7, 2007, revealed that 64.3 percent of consumers did not return anything last holiday season, up slightly from 62.4 percent in 2005. "Gift cards take the guessing out of giving and are one gift that people actually want to return," said Tracy Mullin, president and CEO of NRF. "Retailers will be sure to keep extra gift cards on hand this holiday season, especially for last-minute shoppers." Gift givers said that they are continuing to increase their use of gift receipts as well. According to the survey, 57.5 percent of consumers plan to hand over a gift receipt with holiday gifts either most of the time or some of the time this year, compared to 56.9 percent from last year. When it comes to return policies, 87.3 percent of consumers polled feel that retailers’ policies are fair.