Gift cards, both digital and physical, spur greater purchases for retailers—a concept called “lift,” which is when a person uses a gift card but spends extra cash at the retailer.
“We’re seeing an explosion in the variety of things retailers are doing with gift cards,” said Pete Kledaras, chief risk officer of CashStar. “Retailers are only now beginning to leverage those.”
In addition to making purchases, the cards can be used to instantly transfer cash anywhere in the world and the money can be spent online or in stores. Shoppers can even print out a digital gift card and take it to store.
