Guide
How to sell more gift cards before Christmas.
The gift card is the quiet winner of Christmas trade. In Norway, searches for gavekort sit around 5,400 a month all year, then jump to 33,100 in December. Six times as many buyers are looking, and they are looking for a way out: a present for the person who has everything, bought at the last minute.
Most small businesses let the peak pass with a couple of paper cards in a drawer behind the till. This guide is the plan for taking your share of it, and it starts in October.
1. Start in October, not in December
The customer who buys a gift card in December did not decide in December. They saw the card by the till in November, or remembered you exist when the panic hit. Visibility needs weeks.
Set a simple plan: cards visible by the till from mid-October, a link on your website and in your bio from November, and a reminder to your loyalty club in the first week of December.
2. Make the gift card digital
Christmas Eve at 2 pm is the gift card's finest hour, and your shop is closed or packed. A digital gift card sells through a link and sits in the recipient's Wallet before the church bells ring.
Digital also means: never lost, balance always visible, and the card can be passed from phone to phone. The cardboard card in the drawer has none of that.
3. Make it visible at the till
In November and December every customer at the till is a potential gift card buyer, including the one who just came for a coffee. They only need reminding.
A small sign by the till and one sentence from the staff is enough: by the way, we sell gift cards, in case someone on your list is hard to shop for. Say it every day for six weeks.
4. Offer fixed amounts, and one big one
Open amounts create hesitation, fixed amounts create decisions. Two or three options are plenty: an everyday amount, a gift amount, and a big one for whoever wants to give generously.
The big amount sells rarely, but it lifts the average of all the others. A menu of 300, 500 and 1,000 kr sells more five-hundreds than a menu of just 300 and 500.
5. January is the second gift
The recipient of a gift card is often a brand-new customer, sent to you by someone who knows them. January is the month they arrive, and that visit decides whether they come again.
Welcome them as regulars from day one: offer the stamp card or the loyalty club when the gift card is redeemed. The gift paid for the first visit, loyalty collects the rest.
6. Remind people of their balance
A forgotten gift card feels like free money, but it is a customer you never see and a gift that never became an experience. Neither is good for you.
With the card in Wallet the balance is visible every time the phone opens, and a friendly reminder in February brings the last ones through the door. That is the difference between a sold card and a new regular.
In short: be visible from October, sell digitally for the December panic, and turn the January recipient into a regular. Gift cards in KORTA sit ready in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet, with no card reader and no plastic.
