Posts Tagged “customer engagement”

Top Takeaways:

• – Total holiday gift card sales value is up in 2022 while the total number of cards sold is down.
• – Digital gift card sales continue their rise.
• – The large holiday winter storm cooled what is traditionally the biggest day of gift card sales.
• – More consumers are opting for higher value gift cards.
• – Fine dining gift card sales are up, QSRs sales are down.

According to Paytronix Gift Card Data, some retailers have much to be cheerful about. An early look at the data shows that the shift to digital gift cards is in full swing and that dining trends across the country continue to trend towards sit-down concepts. Despite the swing to digital, an arctic blast translated to lower gift card sales on a key shopping day, demonstrating that gift card sales are not insulated from factors such as weather.

Holiday gift card sales are largely up across the board. The total dollar value of cards sold is up 2.2% versus 2019 and up 1.4% since 2021. 2022 was the best year for gift card sales in recent memory, with more dollars spent on gift cards between Black Friday and Christmas Eve than any year since 2019.

However, while the total dollars spent on gift cards has increased, the number of gift cards sold is substantially lower than previous years. For the holiday period from November to December, numbers of gift cards sold dropped by 5.1% vs 2019 and by 10.7% from 2022. However, this trend has a notable exception: digital gift cards. Between Black Friday and Christmas Eve, the value of physical gift cards is down nearly a fifth (22%) vs 2019 and down 7.9% since 2021. Digital gift cards, on the other hand, have seen the value of sales increase by a whopping 77% since 2019 for the same time period, while the value of digital gift cards sold also increased 4.6% since 2021.

One trend of note during the Holiday Season was the impact of a severe winter storm that froze out a large portion of the country just before Christmas. As shown in the chart below, December 23 is typically the best day for gift card sales. While this still held true for 2022, gift card sales suffered significantly, with numbers of cards sold per day down 32.6% from 2019, down 23% since 2022, and down 10.9 percent since 2020 during the height of the pandemic. Value of cards sold was down by 19% since 2019 and down 14.3% from 2021. Physical gift card sales in particular suffered significantly due to the storm, with numbers of in-store cards sold down by 37% as compared to 2019. Shoppers who procrastinated had to find other stocking stuffers this year as the weather prevented last-minute shopping.

Inflation has also impacted the values of gift cards sold.  $5 and $10 cards were far more popular in 2019, representing 11.2% and 16.7% of gift cards sold that year, respectively. During 2022, the sales of those values of cards dropped approximately 3% each, with sales of each representing 8.8% and 14.1% of total gift cards sold, respectively. On the other hand, sales of higher value gift cards increased to match, with sales of $50 growing from 12.2% to 16.3% and $100 gift cards getting a boost from 6% to 7.8%.

Finally, gift card sales this holiday season reveal that, 2 years out from the worst of the pandemic, consumer tastes are changing from both pre- and post- pandemic. Between Black Friday and Christmas Eve, the value of gift cards sold for QSRs dropped 3.2% compared to 2019 and 6.9% compared to 2021. But the value of cards for fine-dining restaurants has increased 9% compared to 2019 and by 3.7% as compared to 2021, indicating a building demand to revisit concepts with a sit-down model. Moreover, dollars spent per day for fine-dining gift cards during the holiday season is up 80% as compared to 2020’s holiday season, indicating the trends of the pandemic are receding.

So what does this all mean for restaurants? Inflation has taken its toll on the American consumer, but as previous Paytronix resources have shown, loyalty offerings like gift cards are an effective shield against inflation. Moreover, the concepts that suffered the worst during the pandemic are enjoying a resurgence. Finally, the proliferation of digital gift cards shows that digital guest engagement is increasing in popularity and will likely continue to build in popularity.

And of course, cross your fingers for good weather on December 23^rd next year.

Have you been puzzling over how to leverage third-party order aggregators to best serve your business? You’re not alone! Fortunately, a data-informed examination of how businesses benefit from these platforms points to some key strategies that help clear the way forward, toward a more profitable approach.

A recent Paytonix webinar, How to Get More First-Party Orders, examines the trends and tools you need to know about.

Choose the right tools to help you manage third-party orders.

Huge numbers of customers are turning to third-party aggregators as their first source of information in deciding what they are going to eat. With an estimated 37 percent of the restaurant customer base reporting that they order food for takeout or delivery at least twice per week, getting the tools right is a critical first step.  […]

If you have a teenage daughter or follow Liam Hemsworth’s life, then you probably recognize the title of this blog, which was inspired by “The Climb,” one of the many Miley Cyrus hit songs. I’m going to let you in on a little secret: Miley Cyrus is a marketing genius. But you don’t have to take my word for it – Business Insider, Huffington Post, and Entrepreneur Magazine all know that Miley Cyrus has some serious marketing chops.

Below are five lessons any marketer can take from Miley and apply to their own brand.

1. Create an Experience for Your Guests

78% of millennials prefer experiences over things

2. Think About the Customer Experience Loop

3. Identify the Barriers in Your Guest Experience and Knock Them Down

4. Have a Vision for Your Ideal Guest Experience

5. Transformations Don't Happen Overnight

"There's always gonna be another mountain,
I'm always gonna wanna make it move,
Always gonna be an uphill battle,
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose."

 

An Interview with Content Marketing Professor Neil Feinstein

Content marketing professor and consultant Neil Feinstein has helped brands like Disney, American Express, and The New York Times improve their marketing efforts via social media, email, and mobile. In a recent interview, Neil provided insights from his years of experience that you can use to leverage content to bolster your own marketing efforts.

Paytronix: What are brands getting wrong about content marketing?

Neil: Too many brands align their marketing strategies with themselves, and not their customers. For a consumer interaction to be meaningful, it needs to be based on a consumer insight. What does the customer care about? Why should the customer care? Before marketers push out content, before they start tweeting or blogging or gramming, they need to understand the customer and then build a strategy that aligns with his/her expectations – not the business’s.

Paytronix: If that’s the case, what are most brands getting right about content marketing? […]