crave.cards is a platform that allows users to design and sell unlimited physical and digital gift cards for time-limited promotions, experiences, seasonal campaigns, everyday gifting, or any other purpose that suits their business and reflects their brand.
Not surprisingly, crave.cards is proofing very popular in the hospitality sector, because it provides detailed reporting of gift card sales, redemptions and staff interactions with the customers in one place.
Eoghan Quinn is head of sales at crave.cards and discusses how the brand is making an impact on hotels and restaurants.
crave.cards have become very popular in the hospitality industry. Why do you think this is so?
The hospitality industry is dealing with so many challenges right now. Our role is to provide solutions that can minimise the pain of the operators. We created a new solution that helps them know more about their own business and plan better to boost revenue. We call this “radical relief from chaos.”
When we meet restaurant owners, publicans and hotel managers to discuss crave.cards, they are blown away by how much detail they can see about every customer interaction. We have a simple test: we ask them two questions – do you know how many gift cards you sold last Christmas? And do you know how many were redeemed? In most cases, the answer is…No.
They can now easily find all these answers and more thanks to crave.cards. Another example – if they knew who were the customers who bought a gift card last year, they can use the data to target them again this year.
In a very competitive market, what make crave.cards stand out?
Knowledge. No other provider offers such detailed reporting of all card transactions – live and historical sales, top-ups, redemptions, balances, staff interactions with the customer (which staff member dealt with the customer and what the transaction was for).
This knowledge is power. For example, when the business realises that most gift cards they sell are for birthday celebrations, they can create menus, offerings and promotions to get more business of the sort. This helps them cater better to their customers and secure more revenue. Everybody wins.
Who is your target market?
Our primary target market is multi-location and multi-brand groups within the hospitality and retail industries. We work with Press Up Hospitality Group and we are currently finishing implementation with two other large Irish hospitality groups (more details about this very soon).
But at the same time our offering also resonates with smaller individual operators. Unlike large hospitality groups, they do not have a team to develop customer programs and campaigns, so they want something that works fast and shows them the numbers when needed.
They also want to make the most of their business, so they are looking for a comprehensive gifting solution that does not cost them too much.
Simply put, every hospitality and retail business in Ireland, big or small, can benefit from using crave.cards.
Tell us a little about the background of crave.cards and why it was set up?
Our team has an extensive background of working at The Doyle Collection, Retail in Motion, Just Eat, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Freshly Chopped, Starbucks, Griolladh and many others.
Based on our own experience and feedback from others in the industry, we created a more comprehensive system than what was available on the market. It gives deeper insight into who is buying gift cards and how they are being used. While every software provider says they offer all-in-one solutions to hospitality operators, many of these products have basic functionality, provide limited visibility and often charge substantial fees.
We believe the hospitality industry deserves much better. Each sale makes a difference, every customer matters. So the industry needs tools that can actually help run the business with less guessing, less manual work and less errors.
What surprises you most about the demographic of your customers?
It’s no surprise that Christmas is the peak season for gift card sales. But smart operators know that gift cards are relevant all year long. Birthdays, occasions, holidays – there’s never a bad time to visit a favourite restaurant or pub, or organise a surprise getaway break in a nice hotel.
Throughout the year the demographics of people buying gift cards are fairly consistent, but in the last few days before big gifting occasions like Christmas or Mother’s Day we see a big spike in purchases from males. Female buyers purchase gift cards much more frequently and for a variety of purposes.
Tell us about the set-up process for crave.cards?
It’s really easy to get up and running with crave.cards. Businesses can sign up, brand their cards, add the e-comm page to their website or social media channels, and have their logo sitting in customers’ digital wallets in no time.
For larger operators who require deeper integration in their operations, we have a team on the ground in Ireland who can hold their hand throughout the process from start to finish. We discuss together the scope of the gifting program that the operator wants to create and we work through all the details to get it up and running without interruptions to the business.
What future trends do you see for the gift card industry?
The opportunities with gift cards are literally endless. A gift card is a stored-value token that is being exchanged between the merchant and the customer.
Businesses can decide what their cards will be used for and how: regular visits, special experiences, tickets for events, packages, meal deals. Or maybe for more sophisticated engagement with VIP memberships and special loyalty programmes.
Cards can also be used for internal non-revenue purposes - such as employee rewards, mystery shopping, or contra/barter transactions with partners.
Digital gift cards can be easily personalised. They can be stored in the mobile wallet and easily transferred. AI will also help create a more tailored offering based on what the customers want and how they use the cards.
What future plans does crave.cards have in place?
Gift card management is just one of a suite of solutions that we have developed for hospitality operators. We have some sweet new products coming to market very soon, so watch this space!
For more information click here.
