What's Fabulous, Easy, Quick & Profitable?

Current research indicates that electronic gift cards are replacing cash and gift certificates in retail businesses everywhere, and consumers who use gift cards spend more, on average. And now bookstores participating in the Book Sense Gift Card Program offer their own testimonials as to gift cards' advantages -- including increased sales and a high level of customer satisfaction everywhere gift cards are used.

Easy to Use ... in the Store and on the Web

At Fishing With Your Mind in Walker, Minnesota, owner Beth Plattner adopted the Book Sense Gift Card Program a year ago, after attending an ABA presentation at the 2003 Upper Midwest Booksellers Association Trade Show. Now she's sold: "I love 'em," she told BTW. "I think they are fabulous -- easy, quick, with no mess to clean up! Asked whether she has tracked sales before and after starting the Book Sense Gift Card Program, she said, "We have actually doubled our previous gift certificate sales. We don't have to give change back and, best of all, people almost always spend more than the amount on the card."

"I have found the program to be extremely easy to use," said Connie Geverink of Chesterfield Books in Chesterfield Township, Michigan. "The Web site is very fast -- you're not twiddling your thumbs waiting for a response. We do prepare cards ahead of time in popular denominations (especially during the holidays), so customers need to wait only on the redemptions while we access the Internet, and I don't think this is any longer than they had to wait for us to prepare certificates in the past.... The cards are beautiful and very professional looking. I think it gives the store a more polished presentation, and I really believe customers perceive the cards as more valuable than the paper certificates and are proud to give them as gifts. In my opinion, one of the most valuable aspects of this program is the ability of these cards to be redeemed at other Book Sense stores. Especially at the holidays, customers want to be able to send cards to friends and relatives in other states, and this program allows them to do that."

Andrew Nettell of Arches Book Company in Moab, Utah, said that he has found gift cards extremely convenient for use at the store's cafe. "Customers reload cards each week and come in and buy their coffee. I have use of the money, and they come into the store every day," he explained.

In Fort Worth, Texas, at Brystone Children's Books, Dana Harper concurred. So did Carrie Sutherland, assistant manager of J.W. Beecroft Books and Coffee in Superior, Wisconsin. Both are especially pleased that the gift cards can be redeemed on their BookSense.com Web sites. "That's an added plus," Harper said.

A Great Benefit

Dan Chartrand at Water Street Bookstore in Exeter, New Hampshire, didn't mince words: "The gift card program is one of the best things to come from ABA over the past years," he said. And Tamra Dore at Katy Budget Books in Houston also said that the gift card program is "a tremendous benefit of membership in ABA. It is another example of a service we would not have been able to offer our customers relying on our own resources." Peggy Bieber at the Little Professor Book Center in Aberdeen, South Dakota, echoed that sentiment.

Promoting Gift Cards/Promoting Profits

At Wisconsin's Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops, vice president and COO Mary Catherine McCarthy detailed the ways staff and customers learned to appreciate the gift cards during last year's holiday season. "One of our managers gave every member of her staff one as a holiday present, so that everyone could practice selling and redeeming them," she explained. "On our bookseller appreciation day -- when they get an extra discount -- we asked everyone to start his or her shopping spree by buying a gift card, [providing] more practice.

"Customers also really loved them. The card and the presenter have a wonderful classy design, something we often struggled with in the days when a bookseller handwrote the old certificates. The new gift card was a wonderful way to re-promote 'gift certificates' to our customers. We sent a thank-you letter and a $25 gift card to our top 350 customers. They loved them --and they all spent a lot more than $25. It was also very easy to put displays up at all of our desks of the cards to remind customers that gift cards were available."

Responses from participating Book Sense stores point to healthy sales increases with the introduction of gift cards. Russ Lawrence of Chapter One Bookstore in Hamilton, Montana, reported "a very consistent 20 percent [increase over gift certificate sales], for the period since we introduced the gift cards."

When 2003 first-quarter sales with paper certificates were compared with 2004 first-quarter sales with gift cards, Lance Fensterman, general manager of Bound to Be Read in St. Paul, Minnesota, found a 15.06 percent increase; Peter Schertz of Maria's Bookstore in Durango, Colorado, experienced an 18.68 percent increase; and at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, North Carolina, assistant manager Chris Wilcox found a 34.19 percent increase.

There is still time to order Book Sense gift cards in time for the holidays. For gift cards to arrive in bookstores before November 24, orders -- including all required documentation and logos if applicable -- must be received by Givex by November 1. For more information about the Book Sense Gift Card Program, visit www.bookweb.org/read/6303 or contact ABA Marketing Director Jill Perlstein at [email protected] or (800) 637-0037, ext. 1283.