When e-commerce is growing, the physical stores are experiencing problems. According to Swedish E-commerce 2019 from DIBS by nets, customers buying journey are better taking care of online than physically. The online shopping experience is considered both convenient and secure. According to the report, products that are rarely bought by consumers are bought online, so this growth are comming from only e-commerce.
With this as a background, it is even more important now than ever to make sure to offer all kinds of services online, as well as gift cards. According to the report above, 6% stands as ”other payment method”, where you can imagine that gift cards are included as part of this payment method.
And to meet customer needs online, both now and in the future, it is important that you can buy gift cards online. Also make it possible to check the balance on customers gift cards and to use the gift card in the webshop as payment means.
Furthermore, this report highlights some areas around why e-commerce seems to be growing. Areas where we can see correlations with gift cards as a product:
E-commerce attracts all ages
According to the report, e-commerce is something that attracts all ages. Of those who shop the least we find 66-74 year-olds, but still, 83% of them have done some shopping online in the last three months. And it’s not just e-commerce that attracts all ages, so does gift cards. Gift cards serve as a gift for just about any age. So don’t risk missing out on any age group looking for a gift, offer them the opportunity to buy a gift card online from your company.
Shopping online is convenient and easy
We as people strive for a simpler everyday life in order to make everything go together in life. Therefore, the fact that shopping online has become ever easier makes it convenient for anyone who wants to buy something. With that in mind, it is no wonder that e-commerce continues to increase. Something that is also easy and convenient to buy is a gift card. Therefore, take this opportunity and allow your visitors to buy a gift card through your webshop. Also remember to show that you sell gift cards and suggestions on what you can get for a gift card to make your visitors to pay attention to them. Maybe even as a supplement to add in the checkout in your webshop?
Visits instore = spends more in the webshop
The report also shows that customers who visit physical stores spends more in the webshop later. In the report they have been able to see a correlation between having both the physical meeting in store and the simplicity of shopping in a webshop. For example, there are several examples of purely online stores that have opened a store as a flagship store or as a temporary pop-up, just to be able to create a brand experience that customers retain when they leave the store. It is quite difficult to get customers to use all their senses digitally, which can be achieved through a physical meeting in store like above. This can also be seen as another reason to get started on selling and redeeming gift cards online.
We feel secure and rarely cancel online purchases
There was a time when we didn’t feel safe making purchases online, that time is now over for most of us. According to the report, we Swedes rarely interrupt purchases online because we feel secure throughout the buying experience, and that it is easy and fast. With Retain24’s gift card system you get exactly the same experience. You can easily, quickly and securely deliver an online experience of buying gift cards directly in your webshop or through our standalone web application to your customers. A purchase of a gift card is also rarely canceled.
E-commerce in the Nordic region is growing and is dynamic in many ways
E-commerce in the Nordic countries has both very similarities and differences. One similarity is that the e-commerce in all countries is growing and to a large extent at the same rate. Another similarity is the payment method. What can differ between countries is, for example, that in Finland, online banking is a popular payment method and in Denmark you do not like to pay by invoice. The report also shows us that cards as a payment method generally dominate in the Nordic countries. So, if you can easily use a gift card in your webshop as a means of payment, regardless of the Nordic country, it can be seen as an advantage for the customers. Retain24’s gift card system makes it easy to scale up to more countries and currencies where you want to be able to sell and redeem gift cards online. Therefore, please look over gift cards online for all your active countries.
Not convinced enough that gift cards are important to provide online? Please contact us and we will tell you more about how simple and smooth our standalone web application or integration in the checkout system for gift cards online works.