Gift Cards -- Buy, Use, Repeat

As Book Sense gift cards gain in usage, booksellers are looking for ways to maximize the benefits of the program that for many has resulted in increased sales. In addition to new gift card sales, booksellers are finding that some customers continually replenish their cards, and others bring their card accounts to zero and return the cards to the store. To take full advantage of the Book Sense Gift Card Program, booksellers can legitimately increment the used card for a new cardholder.

The charge for incrementing the card -- adding more money to the account -- is $.30. Once a card has been returned to the store, fully depleted, it can be reused for a new customer, also for $.30, with no disadvantages for either consumer or seller. No identifying information about the previous cardholder exists on the card, nor do the cards expire. Booksellers, who have paid about $1 per card upfront, can add to the card's profitability by spending only one-third of the cost of a new card on a 'recycled' card.

Andrew Nettell, owner of Arches Book Company in Moab, Utah, told BTW that they reuse cards "pretty aggressively to save money." A large segment of gift card customers at his store buy them for use at the coffee bar, and "they continually replenish the cards," he said. "They don't need new presenters for the cards, so that saves us more money. But if someone comes in and buys a card to give as gift, we use a new one with a nice presenter. Otherwise, people don't mind if the card has been 'recycled.'"

Among the advantages of the Book Sense Gift Card Program is that a $.50 transaction fee covers unlimited usage, and the reloading fee of just $.30 is only charged when money is added to a card. "When I looked into other gift card programs earlier," Nettell explained, "I found that many of them charge the store every time the card is used. For small purchases, like daily coffees, [a usage fee] would be a real problem. One of my neighbors, who does video rentals, uses a different company; he's getting killed with the per-use fee. I really appreciate that we pay for the cards upfront. At $.30 [to reload a card], I'm paying less for the gift cards than I would for the old paper gift certificates.

"Although no identifying information about the previous cardholder exists on the card, the history of the card will appear when an authorized bookseller runs a certificate search report," noted ABA Marketing Director Jill Perlstein.

Perlstein added, "Booksellers should keep in mind that when they increment (or add value) to their own gift cards they will be charged $.30 (billed quarterly) and will keep the money from that sale unless the card is redeemed in another bookstore. Booksellers that increment a gift card originally sold by a different bookstore will surrender the money from that increment to the original selling store. For example: Store A sells a card for $25. It is redeemed in Store B for the full amount. Store B increments that same card for $40. Store B will pay the $.30 fee for incrementing the card (billed quarterly) and the $40 that Store B has collected will be transferred to Store A at the end of the month."

For more information about the Book Sense Gift Card Program, click here. --Nomi Schwartz