In many cases, gift card programs remain focused on year-end holidays, birthdays, or occasional promotions. Yet, gift cards are a powerful tool to address three key retail challenges during the back-to-school period:
- Reactivating a dormant customer base after the summer break
- Supporting purchasing power without cutting prices
- Unifying shopping experiences across online and physical stores
The good news? You don’t need to overhaul your entire system. Here are three practical levers you can activate right now to put the gift card back at the heart of your back-to-school strategy.
Back-to-school Gift Card Tip #1
Activate gift cards in your CRM campaigns
In September, the top priority for retailers is to re-engage customers after the summer holidays. Traditional promotion-based CRM campaigns often struggle to create strong engagement. Gift cards offer greater perceived value — without affecting the displayed price.
What you can implement:
- Target inactive customers from the last three months with a personalized back-to-school gift card
- Offer a delayed card, for example: “Get €10 to spend on your next visit”
- Combine SMS and email to maximize response rates
Unlike instant discounts, this approach enhances the customer experience by rewarding loyalty and prompting another purchase. You can also introduce scarcity by limiting usage to specific dates or departments.
Pro tip: Pair the card with a top-up mechanism, like “Get €10 + €5 bonus if used before September 30.” It’s a powerful way to encourage quick usage — without resorting to basic discounting.
Back-to-school Gift Card Tip #2
Include gift cards in your back-to-school offers
The back-to-school season is the perfect time to create attractive, bundled offers. Whether it’s clothing, school supplies, sports gear, or tech, adding a gift card to the offer allows you to:
- Deliver a complete and generous perceived value
- Increase the average basket size without lowering prices
- Stand out in a highly promotional environment
Effective formats to try:
- Family pack: “Spend €100 = Get a €15 gift card”
- Student deal: “Tech for back-to-school + €10 gift card”
- Loyalty pack: “Get a gift card when buying 3 or more back-to-school items”
To stay in control of redemption, these cards can be:To stay in control of redemption, these cards can be:
- Valid only on a specific “back-to-school” selection
- Usable only within a defined date range
- Redeemable in-store or in your online shop only
The result: higher perceived value — without cutting into your margins.
Back-to-school Gift Card Tip #3
Use top-up to boost perceived value
Top-up is a simple yet underused mechanic. It consists of offering additional credit when a customer buys a gift card.
Example:
- A customer buys a €100 card
- You add €20 → The card is now worth €120
This is more engaging than a standard discount because:
- The bonus is perceived as a reward, not a markdown
- The customer feels like they’re gaining more purchasing power
- The retailer only spends money if the card is redeemed
Observed benefits:
In a targeted campaign, one retailer who used this method saw:
- +105% gift card revenue (vs. previous year)
- +94% in cards activated
- +177% overall ROI
Without modifying its existing program, the brand generated more sales and improved repeat purchases — all in a single campaign.
Simplified Implementation with Easy2Play
The good news? All three levers are easy to activate, in-store or online. You don’t need to rethink your entire tech stack.
With a solution like Easy2Play, you can:
- Distribute physical or digital gift cards in-store or online
- Manage top-ups without complex IT setups
- Configure conditional campaigns (based on dates, amounts, or limited-use rules)
- Analyze performance: activation rate, average basket, purchase frequency, etc.
By integrating these features into your existing ecosystem, you boost efficiency and enhance the customer experience — without complicating the sales journey.
A Strategic Solution to Activate These Levers Easily
These three approaches — CRM activation, bundled offers, and top-up — can all be deployed without overloading your current system. Provided you rely on a robust solution designed for retail.
That’s exactly what a gift card solution like Easy2Play offers: the ability for retailers to easily manage their entire gift card program — both online and in-store.
- Distribute physical or digital gift cards
- Activate top-up or delayed usage mechanics
- Track performance in real time
- Integrate all your alternative payment flows into one unified hub
In short: a solution built for retail, designed to solve real business challenges, and adaptable to your technical constraints.
Want to learn more?
Whether you’re launching a gift card program or looking to upgrade your current setup, our teams are here to help.
