Gift cards and certificates conveniently retain their value until either used or expired; however, terms and conditions may not be the same for each card or certificate.

With the application of modern technology and tracking systems along with best practices, sales and customer satisfaction can be improved with the use of gift card tracking software. To start, consider the following suggestions!

Gift Cards

Gift cards can be an easy and cost-effective way to purchase products, services and experiences while helping with budgeting and increasing repeat business. But they do come with risks. Gift card owners must remain mindful of potential fees and expiry dates listed on physical gift cards as well as online purchase confirmation emails; tracking software can minimize these risks to ensure gifts are used on schedule.

To automatically track gift cards, a system that enables you to set expiration dates and reminder emails is needed. Furthermore, such software should provide detailed redemption reports that help identify customer behavior trends while increasing sales. Furthermore, they should provide seamless gift card purchasing experiences for your customers.

Use the Reports – Customers – Gift Cards page to view a list of gift cards with their balances, expiration dates and redeemed amounts. Filter this report according to date range, merchant account or card type; add this report to your Starred list at the top of the page; export a PDF or Excel file directly; in some instances retailers may charge an inactivity fee on gift cards that haven’t been redeemed within an agreed upon amount of time – both the credit card industry as well as individual states may regulate these fees separately.

Credits

Gift and credit card issuers generally publish expiration dates on their cards and include them in their terms and conditions, as well as phone numbers to reach them for more information and balance check online.

However, unlike credit cards, most prepaid cards do not expire; their balance will stay on them until their expiration date or they are replaced by their card issuer (depending on terms and conditions).

Toggle makes setting an expiration date easy for any type of credit that needs one – such as Account Credits, Referral Rewards or Gift Cards. With our simple-to-use interface for setting this expiration date, users will know when their card will expire at checkout or in their purchase receipt email.

Your reminder emails can include any customised copy or calls to action you choose prior to card expiration, while any remaining credit on their cards will expire according to when they were last topped up (see: How to Track Credit Card Expiry Dates Automatically). This gives your customers an incentive to use them before their cards become inactive.

Referral Rewards

Gift cards can be an extremely effective marketing tool when implemented properly and monitored regularly, helping foster customer loyalty while driving sales growth. To ensure maximum effectiveness of this marketing tactic, utilize gift card tracking software with best practices and high security protocols.

Customers registering an online or in-house gift card can set an expiration date to remind customers when their voucher will expire and encourage them to use it before it does. Furthermore, gift card registration emails allow customers to set a custom message that can be sent directly to recipients.

To enable this feature, navigate to Settings – Website & Store Settings – Gift Cards. To toggle Enable Gift Card Expiry Yes and set your desired expiration date. Set Gift Message Maximum Length so as to limit how many characters can be entered in the gift card message field. Lastly, toggle Allow Gift Message Yes to select which store View should act as sender of gift card notification notifications.

To keep track of how many times a gift card has been used, select the Check Gift Card History option on this same page. This will display a list of cards which have been redeemed as well as how much is remaining on each one.

Reports

Implementing the ideal gift card program can increase sales, customer retention and overall business performance. Best practices must be put in place in order to achieve these results; creating a comprehensive plan before installing software and regularly reviewing data can help ensure successful implementation. Doing this allows marketers to tailor marketing strategy towards changing customer behavior trends while also guaranteeing software operates properly and meets industry standards.

Accounting practices that reflect gift card sales accurately are also crucial. Unlike with other sales, when selling gift cards the money received counts as deferred revenue that only shows up on your balance sheet when it is redeemed for goods or services – making it imperative to reconcile your outstanding gift card liabilities on an ongoing basis.

To keep an eye on your gift card data, select the Reports tab and Gift Cards report. This report offers an individual gift card overview with their status and balance; filter by merchant or chain, choose a date range to display daily totals, print or export to Excel/PDF for printing or export to PDF; you can even make adjustments via options in the header menu – service-based gift cards can even be converted to price-based gifts by selecting Convert to Price-Based GC in Report Settings!