Gift Card Programs for Restaurants: The 2018 Annual Report

For restaurants, gift card programs represent a major opportunity for increased income, increased customer engagement, and increased audience size. But it can be hard to know how a restaurant’s gift card program is measuring up without comparable data.

So, to help restaurants learn how to sell more gift cards, including information about exactly how gift card programs for restaurants can be tracked and measured, you can find all of the most important gift card program details right here.

Restaurant Gift Card Sales Trends

In every restaurant segment, gift cards sales continue to increase year after year. And, while the sales channel (corporate versus in-store versus third-party), it’s worth noting that the breakdown of the third-party sellers is especially interesting. It turns out that discount and third-party retailers help boost sales and contribute to a healthy gift card program.

The report also includes a breakdown of how much value is loaded onto gift cards by type of restaurant.

Since holidays often represent a large peak for restaurant gift card programs, the report also includes an analysis of holiday gift card sales versus non-holiday gift card sales, as well as holiday gift card sales by date in both November and December.

To read more about restaurant gift card sales trends, download this free report.

Restaurant Gift Card Redemption Trends

Of course, selling gift cards is really only half of a restaurant gift card program story. The redemption of the gift cards represents an opportunity for upselling and building loyalty, but can also be challenging when it comes to attribution and overall planning. 

In this report, you will see a break out of the percentage of gift cards that are actually redeemed by their recipients, as well as the number of days it takes those recipients to redeem them. 

The redemption percentage also varies among different types of restaurants—quick service, fast-causal, casual dining, and fine dining—and the lowest redemption percentage will likely come as quite a surprise. And, in fact, the percentage difference between the type of restaurant with the top percentage of redemption and the type with the lowest is a full 24%.

To see the percentage break down—as well as see the statistics for redemption by channel and tips for fraud prevention—download this free report.

How to Sell More Gift Cards

The report wraps up with two case studies to give a few examples of successful gift card programs for restaurants and help spark a few ideas for your own programs.

In the first case study, we reveal how Grotto Pizza drove multiple visits from each gift card purchase, increased the average size of the gift card purchase, increased gift card sales overall, and also increased visits during its typical off-season.

In the second case study, we explore what it takes to actually transfer a gift card program from one processor to another. When Zaxby’s learned that their gift card software provider would no longer process gift cards, it was faced with finding a new gift card provider. To its surprise and pleasure, the transition was smoother and faster than it expected, and also simplified its accounting procedures.

Read all of the details of each case study in this free report.

Planning for Gift Card Program Success in 2019

The best time to start planning for a successful restaurant gift cards program is…as soon as possible! Download this free report to see exactly how gift card sales and redemptions have stacked up in the past. Plus, get ideas and tactics to ensure your own gift card program is strong throughout 2019 and beyond.

Click here to download the “Annual Gift Card Sales Report: 2018” for free right now.