Digital Gift Cards: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

Digital Gift Cards:
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
2013 Prospective View
Nikki Baird & Steve Rowen, Managing Partners
September 2013
Sponsored by:
Table of Contents
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1
The Ultimate Save the Sale ......................................................................................................... 1
Methodology ................................................................................................................................ 1
Summary of Results ........................................................................................................................ 2
For the Card Buyer: ..................................................................................................................... 2
For the Card Recipient: ................................................................................................................ 2
And the Finalists Are... ................................................................................................................. 3
Best Overall:............................................................................................................................. 3
Best by Category ...................................................................................................................... 3
The Good ........................................................................................................................................ 4
Cards Are Easier To Find ............................................................................................................ 4
‘Shipping’ Is Becoming Less of an Issue ..................................................................................... 4
Mistakes are Being Minimized ..................................................................................................... 4
Digital Gifting is Improving ........................................................................................................... 5
The Bad ........................................................................................................................................... 5
Tiny Font ...................................................................................................................................... 5
Bait and Switch ............................................................................................................................ 5
Too Many Screens ....................................................................................................................... 5
Too Much Repetition .................................................................................................................... 6
Too Little Emphasis on Speed ..................................................................................................... 6
Too Many Mobile Issues .............................................................................................................. 6
Strange Social Priorities .............................................................................................................. 7
The Ugly .......................................................................................................................................... 7
Too Many Retailers Still Aren’t Even in the Game....................................................................... 7
Too Much Searching Required .................................................................................................... 8
Too Much Confusion .................................................................................................................... 8
Too Many Retailers Didn't Finish ................................................................................................. 8
Best of the Best ............................................................................................................................... 9
A Gifting Culture .......................................................................................................................... 9
A Streamlined Card Purchase Process ....................................................................................... 9
Personalization ............................................................................................................................ 9
Card Management ....................................................................................................................... 9
Customer Service ...................................................................................................................... 10
Appendix A: Retailers and Verticals ................................................................................................ b
Appendix B: Criteria and Ratings .................................................................................................... d
Evaluation Criteria ....................................................................................................................... d
Discoverability/Awareness ....................................................................................................... d
Desirability/Conversion ............................................................................................................ d
Recipient Experience ............................................................................................................... e
Social Integration ...................................................................................................................... f
Mobile........................................................................................................................................ f
Appendix C: About Our Sponsor ..................................................................................................... g
Appendix D: About RSR Research ................................................................................................. h
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Introduction
When it comes to giving gifts, everyone knows that it's the thought that counts.
Unless that gift is a gift card — then it's all about the process.
The Ultimate Save the Sale
Online information and near-ubiquitous connected mobile devices have transformed even the
most casual shoppers into product experts. Even after both manufacturers and retailers have
provided a level of product content that didn’t exist until very recently, the most basic and
seemingly unsexy products warrant online video reviews and comparisons from consumer
advocates. This makes buying anything — for anyone — increasingly difficult, because as
consumers, we’re not only more educated about virtually every product under the sun, but that
education makes us more discerning and difficult to purchase for. It is one of the prime reasons
that more and more shoppers are deciding that when it’s time to buy a gift, a gift card is the
perfect solution. Find a brand you know the recipient will like, and let her choose exactly what
she wants.
But buying those cards online still leaves a lot to be desired. And this is why, for the third time in
four years, RSR has conducted a comprehensive online gift card evaluation of 100 top retailers
and restaurants.
Methodology
When evaluating retailers, RSR starts with a compiled list of top retailers. In the past we have
used the Internet Retailer 500, however, this has focused heavily on the largest online players
only, which are not necessarily the most relevant when it comes to gifting and excludes
restaurants, a very strong gifting category. Some retailers are more naturally suited for gifting,
and thus e-gifting, than others (for example, it doesn't make much sense to provide a gift card for
Netflix or Tiger Direct — both are major online retailers, but one is
account oriented, and the other is more focused on business-to69 out of 99 retailers provide
business sales).
e-gifting capabilities.
This year we chose to take a more vertical-oriented approach,
leveraging a combination of factors to provide a selection of close
to 100 retailers with brands that are more likely to be oriented
towards gifting opportunities. We still leveraged the Internet
Retailer 500, but focused on retailers in gifting categories. We
also pulled restaurants from Nation's Restaurant News. A list of
those retailers, and the verticals we assigned them to, is available
in Appendix A.
9 retailers were unable to
deliver a digital gift card after
3 attempts to contact or work
with customer service.
Only 6 retailers scored better
than 44 points out of 63 —
a C grade or better.
The criteria we use evolve every year — as retailers' capabilities evolve, we focus on updating
the criteria to focus on differentiating capabilities, rather than the features that have become
industry standards. This year, that meant focusing on mobile, social, and tablet experiences. A list
of the criteria and the rating scale we used in the evaluation are included in Appendix B.
The evaluation was conducted slightly differently than in years past, and this may have had an
impact on the results. This year, one person purchased all of the gift cards and another person
received them all. We made sure to use consumer-grade email addresses and ISPs, rather than
sending gift cards to corporate servers. This seemed to have an outcome on results, with a
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record-high nine digital gift cards not getting delivered at all during our study. The purchases were
conducted in the latter half of July through early August 2013. An overview of the results for every
retailer and category is included in Appendix A. The executive summary of the overall results
follows.
Summary of Results
During the 2013 evaluation, we found that 69 out of the 99 retailers (two retailers were duplicated
across categories) offered digital gift cards, up from 59 in 2011 and 40 in 2010. For those who do
offer digital gift cards, our scale is comprised of 63 maximum possible total points from the
following criteria (a detailed breakdown of the criteria is listed in Appendix B):
For the Card Buyer:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Gift cards are easy to find
Options are easily understood
Cards have a choice of faceplate artwork
Cards have a choice of gift themes
Personalization options
Choice of denominations
Multiple delivery options
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
For the Card Recipient:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
An engaging product
Timeliness of receipt
Ease of redemption
Clear customer service options
Ability to receive card via social
network
Mobile wallet integration
Ability to add card to retailer’s
branded application
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Clear purchase preview
The number of pages/clicks to purchase
Speediness of delivery
Tablet options
Post-sales notification options
Ability to purchase card via social network
Mobile optimization
And the Finalists Are...
Based on these criteria, where a full range of 0-3 points was available for each category, the
following retailers took top honors (all scores are out of 63 possible points):
Best Overall:
Retailer
Score
The Home Depot
54 points
Sephora
48 points
Starbucks
48 points
Dunkin’ Donuts
47 points
The Cheesecake Factory
46 points
Best by Category
Category
Retailer
Score
Category
Retailer
Score
Apparel
Gap Inc.
38.0
Footwear
Finish Line
33.0
Apparel - Luxury
Ralph Lauren*
24.0
General
Merchandise
Liberty Interactive
41.0
(QVC)
Apparel - Sports &
Fitness
lululemon
36.0
Hardware/Bldg
Supply
The Home
Depot
54.0
Apparel - Women’s
Talbots
24.0
Home Goods &
Furnishings
Crate &
Barrel/Williams
Sonoma
43.0
Beauty
Sephora*
48.0
QSR
Starbucks
48.0
Books/Music
Amazon
36.5
Restaurant
Cheesecake
Factory
46.0
Computers/Electronics
Best Buy
42.5
Sports & Outdoors
L.L. Bean
30.0
Department Store
Sears
34.0
Toys & Games
Toys R Us
28.0
*This retailer was the only one to offer digital gift cards among evaluated participants in its category.
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The Good
Cards Are Easier To Find
Compared to just two years ago, retailers have made significant inroads in making it easier to find
their e-gift card offerings. The majority who’ve been able to do this have employed the simplest
means possible: remove the gift card offering from whichever menu button it previously resided
in, (or worse yet, from the bottom of the home page) and place it “above the fold” on their
homepage. Even Texas Roadhouse (scored 40.0 out of 63.0) — whose website is almost
incomprehensible in both its content and layout — manages to prioritize gift cards in a meaningful
way above the chaos. As a contrast, The Cheesecake Factory (46.0) achieves the same thing in
a much more tasteful manner.
‘Shipping’ Is Becoming Less of an Issue
The process of buying 68 gift cards online certainly exacerbates any tiny inconveniences — and
quickly, at that. However, that is part of the value of this research: to magnify any “little” issues
that might slow or prevent a consumer from a) completing a sale or b) having a good enough
experience to repeat it. One of the most surefire ways to jeopardize both of these outcomes is to
treat electronic gift cards with the same cart and shipping process as a physical purchase. A
physical purchase requires a lot more information than a digital gift card, and can even confuse
the shopper as to whether they're buying a digital gift or a physical one. Put quite simply, if
you’re going to sell electronic gift cards, you need a separate checkout process for them.
Columbia Sportswear Co. (14.0) is a prime example of how bad a non-differentiated process for
an electronically-delivered product can be. During the card design screen, it asks for information
about the recipient (name, email, message info, etc). Yet once added to the cart, it asks who the
item is being shipped to: requires name, street address, city, state and zip code. Buyers will
invariably input their own information, since they aren’t always likely to know such information
about the gift recipient, but then it goes on to ask about packing instructions, whether or not this
item requires a gift box, and preferred shipping carriers. The entire time, the button at the bottom
of every page during this process is “continue to checkout”, causing buyer confusion about what
they’ve been doing the whole time.
Beauty category had the highest
However, Columbia was the exception rather than the rule. This
average score, 48.0, but this was
year, many more retailers seem to have gotten a hold on it, or at
driven solely by Sephora. The
least come up with some clever workarounds (Ann Taylor (17.0),
four other retailers evaluated
for example), whereby shipping info is still a required screen, but
in this category did not offer
a checkbox enables the buyer to identify that it is not relevant and
digital gift cards.
therefore need not be filled out. As we will see in a moment,
however, there are still some heavy-hitting retailers who need a
Restaurant category had the
surprising amount of help in this department.
second highest average score
of 40.1.
Mistakes are Being Minimized
When we get to The Ugly, we’ll discuss how many retailers were unable to complete the
transactions we started with them. However, in today’s fast-paced environment, there is one
simple feature that several retailers employ to great success, and most of their transactions came
through without a hitch: Requiring a double confirmation of the recipient’s email address. It
seems like a simple thing, and though many retailers required a double confirmation of the
buyer’s email address, the hard truth is that a buyer is much more likely to mis-key someone
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else’s email address than they are their own. REI (22.0), L.L. Bean (30.0), and Eddie Bauer
(22.0) are among the brands that add this simple step — but as a cautionary tale, Eddie Bauer’s
feels more like a mistake than an outcome by design: they ask entirely too much information
about the recipient (full name, address, etc.) that a buyer simply may not know off hand.
Digital Gifting is Improving
In sum, all of these positive trends point to one thing: that retailers are increasingly shopping
their own sites for gift cards and learning what works and what doesn’t. Additionally, many
more have hired third-party firms to handle the details for them: gift cards are big business, and
whether home-spun or hosted, it is encouraging to see so much improvement in the number of
retailers taking it seriously.
The Bad
Tiny Font
In The Good, we gave props to retailers for putting their gift card offering “above the fold” on their
homepage. For too many retailers, however, they’ve clearly decided that having it in an easy-tofind location precludes it from being in an easy-to-find font. Amazon (36.5) — who arguably
should care more about their electronic gift card offering than any other retailer we evaluated here
— as well as TGI Fridays (42.5), Lowe’s (36.0), and L.L. Bean (30.0) are prime examples of rightplace/wrong-size offerings.
Bait and Switch
During the purchase process, one of the criteria we evaluated was on a buyer’s ability to select
from multiple denominations — maximum being awarded to those who enable buyers to name
their own price. However, several retailers will offer buyers the ability to customize their
denominations, while at the same time, offering a few suggestions that are significantly more
expensive than the minimum. lululemon (36.0) may be the most dramatic case of this, whereby
buyers could purchase a card for as little as $10 (if they know to type in their own number), but
the smallest suggested card for them is $50. However, lululemon was not alone. Applebee’s
(44.0), Gap (38.0), and Old Navy (38.0) also used the same technique. We certainly understand
what they’re going for here, but for a consumer in a hurry, if she takes the time to realize what’s
happening, it wouldn’t be a stretch to think that retailer is trying to pull a fast one on her.
Too Many Screens
One of our criteria was how many screens (or clicks) it takes to complete a gift card transaction, a
criteria that we had to modify after our first few purchases to only start once the card was built
and added to the shopping cart. Even once we amended this,
On average, retailers scored
most retailers still received no points in this category. In large
best at featuring gift cards on
part, retailers need help whittling down what they ask about gift
their home page.
card recipients. For those few who still treat an electronic gift card
as a physical deliverable, creating a streamlined shopping cart
experience for e-gift card buyers will be a guaranteed way to cut
down the number of screens drastically.
Retailers scored worst on
average in social and mobile
evaluation criteria.
However, even that is not enough. Too many retailers have too
many screens to begin with. Some retailers try to save buyers extra steps by asking them to log
in as a registered user vs. buying as a guest, but if you are a guest, it adds several clicks into the
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checkout process (basic info, shipping info, turning down offers to become a registered user,
turning down offers to remember information). If someone has elected to be a guest, it would be
better to treat them as such, and not as food. For gift card purchases, it's not the buyer who is the
prospect, it's the recipient. And while Ralph Lauren (24.0) may have the best intentions with trying
to get buyers to donate to its Pink Pony charitable foundation, the repeated requests and
informational content definitely add steps to the checkout process for guests, which increases the
risk of an abandoned shopping cart.
Too Much Repetition
Some retailers will ask for a buyer’s email address at multiple points during the card-buying
process, seemingly without rhyme or reason. Chico’s FAS Inc. (18.0) and Wayfair (27.0) are
prime examples of this. During the design process, it asks the buyer for their email address. Then
the gift card is added to the cart, and immediately upon checkout, the buyer is asked for their
email address. This may seem trivial at first, but it is a dead giveaway that said retailer is not
shopping their own site to evaluate the user experience.
Bonus points should be awarded to a few retailers who focus heavily on valuing the buyer’s time.
For example, J. Crew (20.5) asks the buyer only for their zip code, and from it automatically
derives city and state. Another small thing, but it’s a nice touch and shows the retailer cares about
the experience of shopping with them.
Too Little Emphasis on Speed
If you’re a retailer who can deliver an electronic gift card quickly (and a few, such as Sephora
(48.0) have the ability to do so in near real-time), why not be more vocal about it? Most only
mention speed of delivery on their initial selection page, and most are very vague: “within hours”
or “quickly”. Firstly, this is very easy for buyers to overlook when they’re simply choosing between
an electronic and a physical card. But more importantly, with so much variance in the time to
deliver (retailers like Ruby Tuesday (34.0) and BassPro (23.0) took more than twelve hours to
fulfill their orders), it would be good to put a reminder somewhere in the buying process about
how quickly you can fulfill the order.
It's also worth it for retailers to consider some buyer education here. Gift cards, and particularly
digital cards, can be a prime target for fraud and theft — certainly, during the evaluation, we
encountered a lot of issues with a panicked credit card issuer that had to be reassured multiple
times. If the retailer has issues with a lot of fraud around digital gift cards, then they should warn
buyers up front that their order confirmation may take a few hours and may require contacting the
buyer to protect them from identity theft. Retailers should also set expectations about delivery —
once the retailer releases the email to the recipient to notify them of the gift, delivery is out of the
retailer's hands. It depends on the recipient's ISP, their email program, and any spam filters they
may have in place both at the server level and on their computer. This is undoubtedly why
retailers are hesitant to make claims about delivery times, but if they spend more effort on
educating consumers, they could be much more specific — to their advantage.
Too Many Mobile Issues
We were utterly shocked at the number of retailers who do not have a mobile app of any kind, let
alone one focused on commerce. And if retailers are going to rely on mobile and tablet web
implementations instead of apps, it is very important to test them;
just because something works on the main site doesn't mean it
Most retailers do not offer any
will work everywhere automatically. 404 errors and sites
kind of mobile integration.
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Several retailers — retailers
with stores — did not offer bar
codes for in-store use, a feature
that could easily be adapted to
mobile phones.
rendering badly on mobile show poor attention to detail and lack of prioritization of the customer
experience. To further compound issues, there were a handful of retailers (Sony, Disney) that got
caught in an endless loop on gift cards specifically: users were asked to “click here to go to the
full site,” only to be dumped back onto the mobile home page.
As it relates specifically to tablets, if retailers are going to go to the trouble of enabling touch for
tablet viewing, it’s best to make the buttons, drop down boxes, and text fields bigger too. As a
tablet user, it's annoying to be able to swipe among gift card choices, but then also have to
enlarge the screen to enter text into tiny text boxes. Retailers who offer "add a picture" content
should also consider leveraging phone capabilities — access the user’s camera roll or look up a
contact, for example. None of that was apparent in any of our mobile/tablet purchases.
Strange Social Priorities
We were thoroughly surprised at how many brands — store-based brands such as Ann Taylor
(17.0), The Talbots Inc. (24.0), and Nike (20.0), for example — have put such little emphasis on
gift cards within their Facebook page. For example, Nike’s Facebook page has a link (within its
timeline) to NikeTown’s own specific Facebook page — but nowhere are gift cards available. As
retailers continue to tell us in our benchmark research, they are still trying to find the best ways to
monetize social media — gift cards are an easy way to do this. Wouldn’t the ability to buy a gift
card on a fan site be a priority over the ability to post photos?
The Ugly
Too Many Retailers Still Aren’t Even in the Game
Quick Service Restaurants are decidedly absent from the world of digital gift cards. Much of this
absence can be explained by the franchise nature of many of these players (Subway,
McDonald’s, Krispy Kreme, etc.), but when we continue to look by category, Toys clearly
generates one of the biggest letdowns (the average score for the overall Toys category was
only 24 points out of the 63 possible).
Some of these brands are "experiences" that kids need to be there to receive, but for American
Girl and LEGO in particular to not offer electronic gift cards is almost inexcusable. Families are
widely dispersed these days and grandparents and aunts and uncles in one state may want to
send gift cards to children in another location. To compound this, it's probably more secure and
convenient for the grandparent to send the email to the parent of the child than to try to send a
physical card. And ask parents: kids love both the process of
The lowest-scoring retailers
getting and spending gift cards. For such brands to not offer
received scores below 20.0,
electronic gift cards is a hugely missed opportunity.
primarily because they failed
Outside of Toys, Department Stores and Apparel turn in
to deliver a card after three
decidedly poor showings, but these are due in part to old,
attempts to work with
antiquated e-gift card buying processes that haven’t been
customer service.
updated (or evaluated recently by internal employees) in years; at
least these retailers are in the game. But in the Beauty Category, Sephora (48.0) runs literally
uncontested: not one of its competitors (Avon, Estee Lauder, FrangranceNet.com or Dermstore)
offer any kind of electronic gift card (as a result, all scored 0). Again, these are absolute giftgiving destinations, and to be so absent from the game is baffling.
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Too Much Searching Required
The last time we conducted this research, Apple (24.5) didn’t even offer an electronic gift card to
their store (only iTunes gift cards). At that time, we noted that they should be a prime destination
for holiday and special occasion gift cards, and while they’ve definitely gotten into the game,
theirs is one of the most egregiously ill-placed gift card offerings of all of the retailers we’ve
examined. Even once a buyer visits their specific store page, they have to scroll to the very
bottom of the page and hunt through the corporate footer to find gift cards.
And it only gets worse for luxury brands. For example, both Burberry (0.0) and Eileen Fisher (0.0)
made our top 100 list, but not only does a user have to do an actual text search on their site to
locate gift cards of any kind, that search result only brings back physical cards. It’s as though they
simply aren’t interested in generating gift card revenue of any kind.
Too Much Confusion
Despite being known as one of the most customer-centric retailers on the market, Target’s
electronic gift card offering may be one of the most confusing we’ve seen to date. First, the
retailer overwhelms buyers with so much visual content that only once a shopper selects which
“look” they are going for can they determine if that card is available for physical delivery,
electronic delivery, or both. There is never an indicator of when a card might arrive, and
personalized messages aren’t even allowed. This is especially surprising given Target’s approach
to their physical gift cards and so-called WOW cards, where games, toys and other elements are
themselves the gift card.
There are lessons to be learned here: the goal of any gift card offering should be to ease
confusion — not create it. As we’ve already seen, elements of Target’s haphazard process are
evident in lots of retailers pieced-together gift card offerings. Only when a retailer thinks about
their gift card offering holistically — in a differentiated manner — can they create an experience
that avoids confusion at all costs.
Too Many Retailers Didn't Finish
Of the 69 retailers who offer electronic gift offerings, an unacceptable number of them could not
complete a transaction. They fall into 3 categories:
•
•
•
DNF (Did Not Finish): These are retailers whose buying process is broken —
systemically broken to the point where we suspect that no one can complete an online
gift card purchase. In these cases, we tried multiple dates from multiple IP addresses
with multiple different credit cards, and no dice. Offenders include Burger King (21.0) and
Hudson’s Bay Co. (5.0).
DND (Did Not Deliver): These retailers allow the buyer to complete the purchase (some
charging the buyer’s credit card), but never deliver the gift card to the recipient. We
reached out to each, and never heard back. Examples include Shoebuy.com (13.0), HSN
(17.0) and Foot Locker Inc. (15.0).
PINS (Problem Identified, Never Solved): Although this category may show more order
awareness or technical prowess than the DNF and DND retailers, in a way it’s the most
frustrating for the buyer. These are retailers whose cards never showed up; when we
contacted them to inform them of a problem — even with back-and-forth communication
with the customer service department confirming correct delivery address and payment
info — they still could not pull it together to deliver the card. Newegg (19.0) is in a class of
its own here, as we had an actual conversation with a human being to rectify a missing
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card (that still never showed up), but Foot Locker’s (15.0) stream of auto-responses
promising to fix the problem (which they never did) was thoroughly maddening, especially
when the customer service representative asked the buyer to ask the recipient to check
their spam folder. There is no excuse for anything this ugly in 2013.
Best of the Best
When we developed our criteria for evaluation, we deliberately set the bar higher than we
expected the industry to achieve. And we weren't disappointed. We've detailed what retailers did
well and where they could improve, but what does the ideal state of digital gifting look like? Based
on what a retailer theoretically could have scored, here's what we think the ideal, and hopefully
future world of, digital gifting looks like.
A Gifting Culture
A retailer who has invested in digital gifting is thinking about gifting in general — making it easy
for friends and family of brand enthusiasts to help those enthusiasts engage with the brand.
Macy's (31.0) is a good example of a retailer that has implemented a gifting culture. Featured on
their home page alongside gift cards is a gift guide, with recommendations for all kinds of
occasions and age groups. The only thing missing from their gift guide is one last push for gift
cards — for example, "Can't find what you're looking for? Try a personalized gift card."
Some brands are more suited for a gifting culture than others — it's difficult to give Staples a hard
time for not featuring its own gift guide — but for most retailers with a strong brand and
enthusiastic followers, there can be as much value in helping a non-enthusiast buy for a fan. Who
knows? A strong gifting experience might inspire the buyer to try the brand herself.
A Streamlined Card Purchase Process
Retailers need to be clear about how a digital gift card works and when it will be sent. They need
a streamlined checkout process in as few screens as possible that doesn't ask for extraneous
information related to either the buyer or the seller, and avoiding asking for shipping information
found in a traditional shopping cart is a must, because as soon as a retailer asks for that
information it raises doubt in the buyer's mind that they purchased the digital card and not the
physical one — which could derail the purchase.
Personalization
A gift card, by its nature, is impersonal. The buyer has given up on selecting an actual gift and
decided to let the recipient choose (which, let's face it, many prefer). So anything that the retailer
enables around personalization is a plus — it's an opportunity for the buyer to demonstrate that
they put time and effort into the purchase. Even if the buyer didn't know exactly what the recipient
wants, they know the recipient and can share something personal, like a picture or a video. Even
an animated envelope opening to reveal a personalized message shows more thought than just
an email.
Card Management
Several retailers' e-gift cards were the email itself, which meant that if the email was lost, the
recipient was basically out of luck. The retailers who helped recipients manage their cards the
best offered to save the card to an account, and the best of the best, like Starbucks (48.0) and
Dunkin’ Donuts (47.0), offer to save it to an account that can be accessed on a mobile phone —
9
and used for payment. Given that gift card revenue may only be recognized once the card is
redeemed, one would assume that retailers would make it as easy as possible for recipients to
redeem their cards. So we were surprised that only 15 of the 68 retailers offering e-gift cards
have enabled any kind of mobile integration for redeeming gift cards; furthermore, most of those
were a save-to-homepage link from their mobile website. Card management doesn't have to be
high-tech, it just has to be convenient for both the recipient and the retailer.
Customer Service
Finally, the best retailers offer specialized gift card help. When something goes wrong, it does not
inspire confidence in either the recipient or the buyer if via email or on the phone the customer
service representative knows nothing about how digital gift cards work. There is a lot that can go
awry that is not the retailer's fault — a typo in the recipient's email address, problems with the
ISP, problems with the recipient's spam folder or inbox. Retailers need to be prepared for these
issues with specific solutions that don't put the burden on either the buyer or the recipient.
Ultimately, gift cards are about selling to both the brand enthusiast and her friend or relative.
When it is an experience done well, it may pay off twice. When it is done poorly, it easily hurts
twice as much.
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Appendix A: Retailers and Verticals
Company
Apparel
Total
Books & Music
Amazon.com*
36.5
Banana Republic
38.0
BarnesandNoble.com Inc.
32.0
Gap Inc. Direct
38.0
Indigo Books & Music
25.0
Old Navy
38.0
Alibris
0.0
American Eagle Outfitters
28.0
Better World Books
0.0
Eddie Bauer LLC
22.0
J. Crew Group Inc.
20.5
Orchard Brands - Appleseeds
17.0
Category Average
28.8
Category Average
Computers & Electronics
Apparel – Luxury
Ralph Lauren Media LLC
24.0
Burberry Ltd
0.0
Eileen Fisher Inc.
0.0
Gilt Group
0.0
RueLaLa.com
0.0
Category Average
31.2
Best Buy Co.
42.5
Dell Inc.
40.0
Sony Electronics Inc.
35.0
Apple Inc.
24.5
Newegg Inc.
19.0
Category Average
32.2
Department Stores
24.0
Apparel - Sports & Fitness
Sears Holding Corp.
34.0
Macy's Inc.
31.0
Nordstrom
26.0
lululemon Athletica Inc.
36.0
Neiman Marcus
21.0
Under Armour Inc.
24.0
Saks Direct
19.5
Nike Inc.*
20.0
Dillard's Inc.
19.0
Sierra Trading Post Inc.
18.0
J.C. Penney Co. Inc.
16.0
Columbia Sportswear Co.
14.0
Hudson's Bay Co.
5.0
22.4
Barneys New York Inc.
0.0
Belk Ecommerce LLC
0.0
Category Average
Apparel - Women's
Category Average
21.4
The Talbots Inc.
24.0
Victoria's Secret Direct
22.0
Footwear & Accessories
Coldwater Creek Inc.
21.0
The Finish Line Inc.
33.0
Chico's FAS Inc.
18.0
DSW Inc.
28.0
17.0
Nike Inc.*
20.0
20.4
Foot Locker Inc.
15.0
Shoebuy.com Inc.
13.0
Ann Inc. (Ann Taylor)
Category Average
Beauty
Sephora USA Inc.
Avon Products Inc.
0.0
Dermstore LLC
0.0
The Estee Lauder Cos. Inc.
0.0
FragranceNet.com Inc.
0.0
Category Average
Category Average
48.0
48.0
* Retailer is listed in two categories.
b
21.8
General Merchandise
Restaurant
Liberty Interactive (QVC)
41.0
The Cheesecake Factory
46.0
Amazon.com*
36.5
Applebee's
44.0
Walmart.com
31.0
T.G.I. Friday's
42.5
Target Corp.
30.0
Chili's Grill & Bar
41.0
Liberty Interactive (HSN)
17.0
Texas Roadhouse
40.0
Costco Wholesale Corp.
0.0
Olive Garden
39.0
31.9
Red Lobster
38.0
Buffalo Wild Wings
36.0
Ruby Tuesday
34.0
Category Average
Hardware Building & Supply
The Home Depot Inc.
54.0
Lowe's Cos. Inc.
36.0
Lumber Liquidators.com
23.0
Outback Steakhouse
Category Average
0.0
40.1
Build.com Inc.
0.0
Sports & Outdoors
Signature Hardware
0.0
L.L. Bean Inc.
30.0
37.7
Cabela's Inc.
25.0
Dick's Sporting Goods
25.0
Bass Pro Outdoor
23.0
REI
22.0
Category Average
Home Goods & Furnishings
Crate & Barrel
43.0
Williams-Sonoma Inc.
43.0
Pottery Barn
41.0
Wayfair LLC
27.0
Hayneedle Inc.
13.0
Restoration Hardware Inc.
Category Average
Category Average
Toys & Games
0.0
33.4
QSR
Starbucks Coffee
48.0
Dunkin' Donuts
47.0
Burger King
21.0
Baskin-Robbins
0.0
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts
0.0
McDonald's
0.0
Panera Bread**
0.0
Subway
0.0
Wendy's
0.0
YUM Brands (Taco Bell)
Category Average
25.0
Toys "R" Us Inc.
28.0
Disney Store USA LLC
19.0
American Girl LLC
0.0
LeapFrog Enterprises Inc.
0.0
LEGO Brand Retail Inc.
0.0
Category Average
23.5
0.0
38.7
* Retailer is listed in two categories.
c
** eGifting is now available, but was not at the
time of research.
Appendix B: Criteria and Ratings
Evaluation Criteria
Discoverability/Awareness
Gift Cards are Easy to Find
3: Offering is featured above the fold on home page
2: Offering is within a menu item on the home page
1: Offering is 'below the fold' on the home page
0: Option is not visible on the home page
Easily Understandable Options
3: There is a page where all available options are easy to see/compare
Images/examples bring physical/digital difference to life
2: There is a page where gift card options are easy to compare
1: The retailer is marketing one primary option over others, but makes all options available
0: All options are available, but not easy to understand — digital vs. physical, etc.
Desirability/Conversion
Choice of Faceplate Artwork
3: More than 24 options available
2: 12-23 options available
1: 6-11 options available
0: 5 or less options available
Choice of Faceplate Themes
3: More than 5 themes are available (for example, birthday,
Mother's day, etc.); multi-language options
2: 3-5 themes are available
1: 1-2 themes are available
0: Only branded faceplate designs are available
Personalization
3: Retailer offers video, photo/image uploads and a personalized message
2: Retailer offers photo/image uploads and a personalized message
1: Retailer offers a personalized message
0: Retailer does not offer personalization options
Choice of Denominations
3: A custom denomination can be entered, or standard denominations can be
selected. The retailer offers a low minimum purchase
2: A custom denomination can be entered but with a high minimum purchase
Or, the retailer offers standard denominations with low minimums
1: The retailer offers a few standard denominations with a high minimum purchase required
0: The retailer offers few denomination options
d
Multiple Delivery Options
3: The retailer provides flexibility for delivery — email, social, card-oriented
printing at home, setting date/time for delivery
2: The retailer provides email options and card-oriented print options,
with delivery flexibility (no time, date only)
1: The retailer allows email or print delivery, with little flexibility (no date or time)
0: The retailer offers email delivery only
Clear Purchase Preview
3: The retailer provides a full preview that is easy to see (clear, quality image,
any animation or reveal) and edit options before finalizing the sale
2: The retailer provides a static, small preview (difficult to view)
1: The retailer offers a stock preview
0: The retailer does not offer a preview option
Pages/Clicks to Purchase
3: 1 page or click to get to order confirmation
2: 2 pages or clicks
1: 3 pages or clicks
0: 4+ pages or clicks
Speediness of Delivery
3: Instant delivery is possible
2: Delivery within the same day is possible
1: Delivery within 24 hours is possible
0: The retailer does not provide information about how quickly the
gift card will be delivered
Tablet Optimization
3: Gift card purchases are optimized for a touch experience — responsive layout,
large buttons, drag/swipe
2: The full site experience is available and works on a tablet
1: The retailer provides a smartphone experience only
0: The tablet experience is too difficult to use to buy a gift card
Notification Options
3: The retailer notifies buyer when the e-gift card is sent and viewed and provides a
notification if the card is not viewed within 3 days
2: The retailer provides a notification when the card is sent and viewed
1: The retailer a notification when the card is sent
0: The retailer provides an order confirmation only
Recipient Experience
Engaging Reveal
3: The retailer offers an animated personalized reveal option
2: The retailer offers a stock animated reveal to the recipient
1: The retailer offers a graphics-based gift card to the recipient
0: The retailer provides a text-only gift card to the recipient
e
Time to Receipt
3: Within 5 minutes of promised delivery
2: Within 15 minutes of promised delivery
1: Within 30 minutes of promised delivery
0: Greater than 30 minutes from promised delivery or no promised delivery
time is available
Ease of Redemption
3: The retailer offers online storage and in-store barcode. Can print email or from site
2: Can print email or from site. In-store bar code. No online storage
1: The email is the card for online pure-play and/or no in-store bar code
0: The email is the card. For multi-channel retailers, the card is only redeemable online
Clear Customer Service Information
3: It is clear for both the buyer and the recipient what to do if something goes wrong
2: It is clear at least for the buyer what to do if something goes wrong
1: It is clear for the recipient what to do if something goes wrong
0: It is not clear for either buyer or recipient what to do if something goes wrong
Social Integration
Ability to Receive Card Via Social Network
3: The retailer offers gift card posting to recipient's social media profile (Facebook)
2: The retailer offers to post a greeting message to the recipient's social profile
1: The retailer offers to let the buyer share that they have made a purchase
0: The retailer doesn't offer any social-based gift delivery or notifications
Ability to Purchase Card Via Social Network
3: The retailer offers on-page purchase of gift cards on their Facebook page
2: The retailer features gifting as a topic on their Facebook page,
(which links back to their site)
1: The retailer mentions gift card purchases on their Facebook page
(which links back to the site)
0: The retailer does not offer gift card purchases through its Facebook page
Mobile
Mobile Optimization
3: App and web optimized for mobile e-gift card purchase
2: Web optimized for mobile
1: Web works on mobile
0: Mobile is too difficult to use to buy a gift card
Mobile Wallet Integration
3: Any wallet
0: No wallet offering
Add to Retailer Mobile App
3: You can add multiple cards to the app
2: You can add a card to the app
1: You can check a balance on the app
0: No card management via the app
f
Appendix C: About Our Sponsor
CashStar is the leading provider of omnichannel digital gifting solutions for the world’s top brands.
The CashStar platform enables retailers and restaurants to maximize sales, eliminate fraud risk,
increase customer engagement and drive adoption of mobile payments. More than 300 leading
companies rely on CashStar to power the most innovative and advanced prepaid and digital gifting
programs, including Best Buy, Brookstone, Coach, Crate & Barrel, Dell, Dunkin Donuts, Gap,
lululemon, Petco, Pottery Barn, QVC, Sephora, Staples, Starbucks, The Cheesecake Factory, The
Home Depot, and Williams-Sonoma. To learn more, please visit www.cashstar.com, follow
@CashStar_Inc, or e-mail [email protected].
g
Appendix D: About RSR Research
Retail Systems Research (“RSR”) is the only research company run by retailers for the retail
industry. RSR provides insight into business and technology challenges facing the extended retail
industry, providing thought leadership and advice on navigating these challenges for specific
companies and the industry at large. We do this by:
•
Identifying information that helps retailers and their trading partners to build more
efficient and profitable businesses;
•
Identifying industry issues that solutions providers must address to be relevant in the
extended retail industry;
•
Providing insight and analysis about a broad spectrum of issues and trends in the
Extended Retail Industry.
Copyright© 2013 by Retail Systems Research LLC • All rights reserved.
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permission of the publisher. Contact [email protected] for more information.