Is your consignment or resale shop promoting gift cards for the holidays?

Whether you’re using stored-value cards or personally-crafted paper gift certificates, consider how this gift idea is perceived by the purchaser, and how it will look to the recipient. Don’t offer it up naked. Dress it up, to make it so appealing, she’ll buy them for all her friends!

Astonish & amaze your gift-card buyer by folding origami paper into an elegant holder:

How about wrapping the gift card/ paper certificate in lace… with a pretty seal?

And here’s my favorite:

Tips to sell more gift cards:

Make sure they know you offer them: Do you remind in-store shoppers with displays and signage? Mention it at check-out? Have you made badges for staff to wear suggesting “the perfect gift”?

To motivate trips into the shop, do you focus on gift cards at least a few times a week on your shop’s Facebook page? Have you written and published a blog post “Why a gift card?” that you can use over and over as a link on Twitter? Created a festive photo of your gift card to post on Instagram and Pinterest every few days?

Addressing the WIIFM factor: Just WHY would a shopper buy a gift card to your shop, rather than, say, purchasing one for Amazon quickly and easily when they are grocery-shopping? Make sure that there’s something in it for them: a small store credit/gift card they get as a bonus for their own use after the holidays? Buy 4 get 5? A gift for them with purchase of a card for another? Or simply a “sale”: Buy a gift card for $20 and the card is issued for $25? Or how about a drawing to win a gift card?