How the New Rules for Gift Cards Apply to Your Small Business

How the New Rules for Gift Cards Apply to Your Small
Business

Are you thinking of offering gift cards to your customers? That’s a great idea. Gift card
programs have been shown to improve cash flow for small businesses, allowing you to
generate revenue ahead of providing a product or service. Selling gift cards can also help
your small business make some extra money, particularly when a recipient ends up buying
more than the card’s value, or when some balance is left unused. What’s more, gift cards
are a hit these days, especially now that people know that they can exchange their gift
card to naira.
With this in mind, you might want to review the rules for gift cards and how they apply to
your business so you can make the most of your gift card program and ensure profitability
all around. Here’s what you need to know:
Understand how gift cards work
You can decide to let customers buy gift cards online or in-person (or both). Regardless of
how the card is purchased, you and your team should remember to activate it from your
POS system with the specified amount. The customer then pays and gets the gift card and
the receipt of the balance. If purchased online, your customer or their recipient should

receive an email with the amount, message, redemption instructions, and a unique code for
redemption.

Denominations

Decide on the denomination of your gift cards. No matter the denominations you decide on,
your customers should have the option to convert their gift card to naira.

Processing gift cards

Decide if your customers can redeem their gift cards using a physical card, a QR code, a
printout of a digital card, or all of the above. The cashier can accept the payment by
choosing the gift card option on your POS system’s interface. A merchant account payment
processor should approve the purchase if there is still some balance on the card, then
deduct the amount of the purchase from it. If the purchase costs more than the card’s
value, you can accept another payment option to cover the extra costs.

What happens to unused gift cards?

If a customer or their recipient cannot use your gift cards, it’s up to them to decide what to
do with them. For instance, they could convert the gift card to naira for extra cash.

If you have unused gift cards from other businesses, you can sell them for instant cash
online. Just be sure to use a trustworthy platform with the best offers.