Give Consumers What They Really Want With CashStar—Our Editor’s Retail Choice Award™ for Digital Gifting Solutions

The Crunch: Boasting a digital gift card management solution that enables retailers to improve the customer experience, CashStar has earned our Editor’s Retail Choice Award for Digital Gifting Solutions. Research shows consumers tend to prefer gift cards over other promotions, and CashStar’s cloud-based platform serves a powerful marketing tool for customer acquisition and retention. With innovations such as social media gifting and product eGifting, CashStar has turned the act of giving and receiving gift cards into a highly personalized experience.

Most retailers recognize the positive image—not to mention the profit—they can earn from an effective promotional campaign. However, according to the numbers, there’s a considerable difference between what consumers prefer and what retailers provide in terms of promotions.

NAPCO Research revealed that 58% of consumers prefer to receive gift cards from retailers, compared with 30% who are partial to coupons and the 6% who like bonus bucks programs. Meanwhile, the same research found that more retailers distribute coupons (47%) than they do gift cards (25%).

The gap between consumer and retailer preference widens among those who have never bought or rarely buy from a particular retailer. If you think about the nature of gift cards and coupons, it’s clear why this happens: Coupons eventually expire and only give consumers a percentage or dollar amount off purchases, whereas gift cards essentially act as cash to put toward trying out a new brand. Based on the numbers, retailers going the coupon route are missing out on major opportunities for customer acquisition.

CashStar helps retailers drive conversions by enabling them to effectively manage omnichannel gift card programs through its cloud-based platform. Because of its innovative ideas, such as using gift cards in social media marketing and digitally gifting physical items, CashStar has earned our Editor’s Retail Choice Award for Digital Gifting Solutions.

We recently caught up with Nate Smith, CashStar’s VP of Marketing, at the NRF Big Show in New York City, where he told us much of the company’s success has come from staying focused on helping merchants do more with their gifting programs.

“Instead of trying to sell more physical gift cards, we focus on merchants specifically,” Nate said. “How can we help you create gift card programs that are actually changing and enriching a customer experience as opposed to just selling more product?”

Sephora, a beauty retailer known for its open-sell environment, is an example of a company that’s seen immediate growth from partnering with CashStar to differentiate itself from the competition.

The retailer had long embraced an omnichannel approach with a well-developed website and mobile app, but its gift card program existed only in a physical form. Sephora turned to CashStar in 2012 for a mobile gifting and Apple Passbook integration that helped establish it as a leader in the mobile space, later adding the ability to send digital gift cards from its website.

Using CashStar, Sephora launched its improved program in less than two months and experienced eight-fold growth from the previous year in its digital gifting program as well as a 90% increase in its digital gift card transactions.