Gifting Goes Digital: Boost Restaurant Sales With E-Gift Cards This Holiday Season

As many restaurants learned during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, offering digital gift cards is one of the easiest ways to sell gift cards for your restaurant. Many customers have continued to prefer off-premise dining options such as online ordering and delivery. This means digital gift cards have only become more valuable for restaurants.

Data shows that digital gift card adoption is projected to grow 23% by 2025 — more than 2.5 times faster than overall gift card sales. With shipping delays and supply chain problems complicating people’s typical holiday shopping routine, experts are expecting another big surge in digital gift card buying this winter. Some of the most popular digital gift card options? Restaurants and big box stores.

Indeed, the shift to digital has pushed demand for digital gifting to an all-time high, and e-gifts are proving to be a preferred contactless option. In a 2020 survey, nearly 40% of consumers said they prefer digital gift cards over plastic cards. That interest has likely only increased over the past year, especially for younger customers and others who fully embraced the convenience of digital, contactless transactions during the pandemic.

While many older POS systems only support physical gift cards, newer systems allow customers to purchase gift cards online, from anywhere and at any time. These systems are easy to use and can be integrated into your POS. 

Here are a few more reasons to embrace digital gift cards in your restaurant.

Benefits of Digital Gift Cards

• Convenience for customers. 

• • Customers can easily purchase gift cards online at any time.
  • Gift cards can be personalized with custom messages and sent directly to the recipient via text or email — great for last-minute shoppers!
  • Modern gift card systems even allow customers to schedule gift cards to automatically send to recipients for special occasions.
  • Customers can check their digital gift card balance online.
  • Digital gift cards can be for online ordering or in-person, depending on the customer’s personal preference.
  • Digital gift cards create a seamless purchase and customer experience, which can help boost overall restaurant sales.

• Cash flow for your business.
• On average, restaurants see additional sales when guests use gift cards. 
• Digital gift card sales provide critical short-term cash flow.
• Gift cards received during the holidays give recipients an incentive to order during cold weather months, which are typically slower throughout the industry.
• Click here for even more reasons your restaurant should focus on gift card sales.

The data is in. Customers love to buy (and receive) gift cards, and a digital option makes that easier than ever. Is your restaurant ready to lean into the demand for digital gift cards?

Contact DCRS Solutions today to find out what steps you can take to get started.