Seize the holiday spirit today!

Christmas is on the way bringing hustle and bustle and lots of money to retail establishments! Families are preparing their holiday plans, purchasing gifts, and readying themselves for the most expensive time of the year for consumers. Are you ready to seize the moment?

People often express anxiety as to how to bless their friends and family over the holiday season, and you can make it easy to ensure their money is spent at your establishment.

Globally, companies have been grabbing the moment to cash-in on the holiday season. United States companies like Facebook and Amazon.com have formed partnerships to allow their clients the added bonus of giving gift cards to their friends and family.

In South Africa, gift cards are rapidly replacing paper gift certificates for their ease of use, fraud prevention and the added benefit of data collection.

Other benefits include:

* Frequent shopping and convenience - Cards can be reloaded, creating opportunities for repeat store visits.


* In-store credit - Instead of using paper credit vouchers or cash back, gift cards can be issued for merchandise returns and in-store credits.


* Advertising - A card in the customer’s wallet is a constant advertisement. We like to call it the 'mini-billboard'.


* Promotion - Plastic cards are great as a marketing tool! Gift cards can be treated as a new product line that you can broadcast to your customers and clients. The added option of utilising a cleverly designed hang-tag gives more promotional weight to your card system.

* Increase Sales-

• 61% of customers spend more than value of gift card
• 50% of the money on the card is spent at retail price than discount sale price
• 10-20% of a card’s value may never be redeemed
• Acquire cash upfront before delivering the product or service
• Money is turned into store credit
• Customer's cash kept in-store
• Gain new customers
• Encourages repeat business

Truth is, there is no better time to launch your Christmas Gift Card programme than today! CardsPlus has all the tools you will need from plastic cards printed in a jiffy to a manage-it-yourself gift card programme, RewardsPlus... all at a very reasonable cost!

Call us at 086 16 CARDS (22737) or if outside South Africa (+27) 11 894 3914 for more information about how CardsPlus can equip you with everything you need to Carpe the Christmas time Diem!

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Are You Squeezing the Most from Your Loyalty Programme?

Many POS systems allow for an additional module to provide client loyalty, but many companies don’t know what type of benefits a loyalty system actually provides!

We have put together a list of 8 benefits of implementing a loyalty programme.

• Increases Total Revenue
• Enhanced product purchasing
• Increases Brand Awareness
• Increases ability to track client purchasing trends
• Multiplies ProductPurchases
• Tracks Sales trends
• Enhances Marketing Effectiveness
• Boosts company image

Implementing a loyalty programme gives you the ability to grow your business faster and further!

If you would like a manage-it-yourself solution to start reaping the rewards of client loyalty, please give CardsPlus a call today.

What benefits are you enjoying from your loyalty programme?

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Gift Cards - the Gift that Keeps on Giving

It's here - the Christmas buying season. Shoppers are making their lists and checking them twice - and looking for the perfect person-to-gift match. Uncle Joe loves tools, Aunty Pam dies for new shoes. Cousin Mark is into electronics and Granny is just happy to have anything from her dear sweet grandchild.

Around the world, Gift Cards are king of the Christmas season. One of America's top retailers, Best Buy, reports that they sell 70% of its gift cards in the Christmas season. No longer considered the "cop-out gift", a survey done by BIGresearch for the NRF,conducted in early October, found that nearly 55 percent of consumers would like to receive a gift card this holiday season. In the US last year, consumers spent $26.2 billion on gift cards during the holidays, with an average of $40 spent per card. South Africa is quickly following suit.

The benefits of gift cards are obvious. They offer immediate cash sale, with the likelihood of add on purchases; they broaden customer base, working as a classified endorsement from one customer to another; they reduce the amount of returned merchandise, especially around the holiday season, as the receiver is guaranteed to receive the items they want.

Adding a twist to the standard gift card can also increase sales. Multiple options, from custom design to personalization at point of purchase, even as far as the ability to print the card givers photo on the card - all of these options are possible through the products and services offered by Cards Plus. We can even help with quick turnaround on smaller volumes.

So, think out of the "gift box" this year - consider adding a special Christmas gift card to your holiday items - and watch your sales totals increase!

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Loyalty Card and Gift Card Programs – What is all the buzz?

In today’s economy, retaining business, as well as bringing in new business is more challenging than ever. Simply offering a great product is no longer enough.

Retailers and Service Providers are now faced with the challenge of adding additional value to their product line – and they need to stand out from the crowd.

We have a solution to this dilemma and a new product that we are launching – one that is growing in popularity and gives a great return to the retailer and service provider –Rewards Plus Gift Card and Loyalty Card Programme.

Why does this work?

Loyalty Cards and Membership Cards are today’s ‘Hot Ticket’, and are currently one of the fastest growing segments in the plastic card industry.

· Loyalty cards cater to every customer’s desire to feel recognized and special

· Loyalty programmes offer the ability to reward your most loyal customers, giving them a little special treatment and encouraging them to return,

· Loyalty programmes increase your knowledge of your customers by helping to record spending patterns and trends.

Retailers reap great rewards from loyalty card programmes:

* Retain/increase business with your customer base
* Collect Data on customer buying habits and sales trends
* Advertise -Put a "Miniature Billboard" of your business in your clients wallet

Gift Cards provide their own list of great benefits:

* Gift Cards are an excellent promotional tool. Gift cards build brand awareness as they place your advertising and message space in the wallets of your customers.
* Gift Cards offer Increased Turnover and Profitability – Existing store customers transform others into same store customers without any extra cost or effort to the retailer. Gift Card displays at the point of sale have a dramatic impact on human tendency to impulse purchase, thus increasing profitability. Affixing Cards to creatively designed carriers adds to the perceived value. Additionally, customers tend to spend 40% to 140% more than the face value of their card.
* Gift Card assist with collection of data- Magnetic swipe Gift Cards give you the facility to examine purchasing activity and trends at all levels enabling the production of accurate reports.
* Gift Cards assist with effective target marketing - With the collated Data and accurate reports Gift Cards give you the opportunity to carry out more effective and successful marketing.
* Gift cards ensure less returned merchandise - Gift cards ensure that the customer or the end user receives the goods that they want which in turn reduces the quantity of returned or exchanged merchandise.


Cards Plus is pleased to announce the launch of it’s all new Gift Card and Loyalty Programme- Rewards Plus

Operated by magnetic stripe readers, this programme offers extreme flexibility and great benefit for retailer and customer alike. Call our customer service department at 08 616 CARDS (or 011 894 3914) to receive more information on this revolutionary way to begin your own Gift card and Loyalty Programme

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