Gift cards continue to grow leaps and bounds allowing retailers that have implemented a program for their stores to reap vast benefits. In fact, total spending on gift cards in 2012 nearly reached $30 billion with around two-thirds of all American consumers having purchased at least one gift card.

It is mainstream and it's not for the holidays anymore. While nearly 2/3rds of all consumers have purchased gift cards for someone around the holidays,  vanilla gift card balance over 80% of all consumers have purchased a gift card as a birthday gift. No longer should retailers simply rely on the holidays for their sales - though sales at this time are concentrated - the sales are available throughout the year.

Gift cards are convenient, secure, and act as a branded "billboard in a wallet". In multi-unit retail outlets, they keep the money within the store network and with gift cards, retailers will gain more name recognition and exposure in the marketplace, further widening its existing customer base. To further the case, it's not just for the brand awareness, it adds to the top line as the average gift card user ends up spending an extra 20% beyond the value of the card.

Why Gift Cards? Some retailers may still use punch cards or paper certificates and while these programs may have advanced their loyalty program to date, plastic gift cards outsells paper certificates from 2 to 10 times as much. The electronic concept has become the medium of choice for retailers and merchants across the country. Among the significant reasons are:

No Cash back - the value remaining after partial redemption stays on the card ensuring additional opportunities to solidify the guest relationship.

Real time Processing - virtually eliminates both the losses associated with paper gift certificates and costly tracking and accounting.

Offering a gift card is very similar to offering a new product item - without having to learn complicated handling procedures, training procedures, and tie up valuable storage space. It will help gain new customers - friends or associates of your existing customers - and the card program should be viewed as a revenue generator.