Use Gift Cards to Grow Your Cannabis Retail Business

It’s a great idea to give your cannabis retail business the gift of gift cards. Gift cards provide a proven way to increase customer traffic, improve cash flow with money paid upfront, and grow the all-important bottom line.

A gift card program will help you tap into the love Canadians have for plastic over cash. About 87% of Canadians purchase and receive gift cards each year, and more than 70% prefer giving gift cards over money. The Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization claims that the market for reloadable gift cards has grown by 10% over three years and is worth $2 billion a year. Benefits of a Cannabis Gift Card Program

Gift cards allow both brick-and-mortar or e-commerce cannabis retailers to:

• Attract new customers - Gift cards will get new customers through the door, providing you a chance to convert them into loyal repeat business.

• Generate more business during slow periods - Gift cards are often given during holidays, and used later during traditional retail slow periods.

• Increase sales - People are more likely to pay full price with gift cards than if they were using their own money. For the same reason, they are less likely to look for sales or bargains. And the average consumer spends more than $38 above the amount on their gift card. And of course, unused gift cards represent pure profit for merchants.

• Get paid upfront - In a business where cash flow is important, gift cards are great because they get you paid in full, upfront.

• Build brand awareness - Both traditional plastic and virtual gift cards can serve as “mini-billboards” for your cannabis business, with branding images and messages.

• Generate useful data - You can understand your customers better, and serve them more effectively, with data collected from gift card programs. And with online registration of gift cards, customers can indicate their preferences, allowing you to refine your services.

Compliant Gift Card Solutions

For our customers, Merrco offers gift card solutions that will help grow and promote your business. Since the cannabis industry is highly regulated (no lifestyle images can be used in marketing, for example), you can rest assured that your gift card program is fully compliant with all federal, provincial and territorial regulations.

Our gift card provider, DataCandy, provides omnichannel integration, easily working with your existing POS, mobile ordering terminals, email and transactional ecommerce websites. The Merrco gift card solution includes:

• Promotional cards

• Reloadable cards

• E-gift

• PIN security

Also, our configurable dashboards display real-time transactions of customer data, providing insights into buying behavior that will allow you to improve your business and customer relationships.

For more information on how to get started, call us at 1-800-957-0534 or email us at info@merrco.ca