According to a new benchmark report from RSR (Retail Systems Research) titled, “Digital Gift Cards: A Key Indicator Of Omni-Channel Alignment,” more retailers are offering digital gift cards online to boost customer engagement, yet, they also must think about the shopper’s process and how they enable it across multiple digital touch points.
Retailers that want to provide a strong customer experience for digital gift cards need the following, according to the report:
• An easy, quick way to find gift cards no matter the device used. This includes putting some intelligence behind the search functionality to recognize when consumers are searching for gift card options, rather than for products.
• For retailers that offer gifting sections on their sites, gift cards should be included as an option in case consumers don’t find something inspiring in your gift options.
• A clear explanation of the gift card options, the timing of delivery, and who will receive communications related to the gift card purchase.
• Clear and easy to use options to personalize the gift card. When consumers are giving something impersonal, it helps to make them feel like they are not just “giving up” on finding a gift, but sending something that will delight the recipient.
• A path to digital wallet or online account storage. Retailers, however, need to be sensitive to consumers’ privacy. Microsoft and Amazon both required the recipient to have an account before even viewing their gift card. The option to store the gift card to an account should be an incentive to the consumer to create an account. The account should not be a requirement to simply receive a gift card.
• A strong use-case testing procedure every time a new touchpoint or tweak to an existing platform is added. There were so many small things that were broken in this evaluation that they were too numerous to mention – dead links, 404 errors for searches for “gift card,” balance checking apps that didn’t work, emails with broken links, wrong links, or broken images. It’s clear many of these retailers put something in place and then ignored it. The solution is simple: shop your site. See what a customer sees.
Digital gift cards are not just a box to check on a list of digital commerce functionality, the report says. It is a customer experience, and it is one that has lots of process requirements, security concerns, and technical challenges.
And it has to keep up with the retailer’s evolving commerce platforms. If retailers can do it well, they have an opportunity to create a strong experience for both buyers and recipients – twice the impact for one transaction.
During the 2015 evaluation, RSR found that 82 out of the 100 retailers surveyed offered digital gift cards, which is up just slightly from 80 in 2014, after big year-over-year jumps in previous years: 68 in 2013, 59 in 2011 and just 40 in 2010.
Here are the best overall retailers listed in the report (based on a high end total of 75 points):
The Home Depot: 51.5 points
Sephora: 50.5 points
Dunkin’ Donuts: 49 points (T)
Starbucks: 49 points (T)
Ulta Cosmetics: 49 points (T)
Amazon.com: 48 points (T)
Best Buy: 48 points (T)
The Home Depot maintained a top five finish this year through consistency. The retailer scored strongly in making gift cards easy to find, in providing personalization options for the buyer to customize the gift card, and in setting – and meeting – expectations for delivery times. The Home Depot also demonstrated some of the early stages of mobile channel integration, with a mobile site and app that leverage the mobile phone’s touch capabilities and contextual keyboards and integration to mobile wallets and social channels.
Sephora emphasized innovation over consistency, while the retailer was not as strong in setting expectations for delivery times or in the choice of faceplate designs, Sephora used a more engaging reveal to the recipient than The Home Depot, and provided a much closer integration for mobile use – both in terms of leveraging the buyer's contacts on mobile, and in integration to mobile wallets.
All of the top five digital gifting experiences provided:
• Easy-to-find gift cards, no matter the channel used to engage with consumers
• Purchases that are integrated with product carts and plastic card purchases
• Personalization and choice for the buyer to customize the gift card purchase
• Mobile delivery and extensive notification options to both buyer and recipient
• Mobile-optimized purchases on both mobile web and mobile app
• Some base-level ability to add gift cards to a mobile wallet