Category: Sales Incentives

How to Use Bulk Gift Cards for Sales Incentive Programs

Posted on by Geoff Miller

How To Use Bulk Gift Cards for Sales Incentives Programs

Motivating sales teams isn’t just about numbers—it’s about fostering a sense of recognition and appreciation. The question isn’t whether a sales incentive program is worth implementing but which method will best drive employees to excel.

Gift cards are tokens of gratitude that recognize employees’ efforts and empower them to choose rewards that resonate with their interests. This article explores why bulk gift cards are the ultimate sales incentive for motivating and acknowledging sales teams and how to pick the best provider for your company.

What makes bulk gift cards ideal for sales incentives?

Motivating sales teams is challenging for businesses of all sizes, yet essential for success and team morale. Since 2010, U.S. gift card sales have doubled, exceeding $200 billion in 2023. This growth reflects their increasing popularity and appeal. No wonder businesses use gift cards as incentives—the benefits are clear.

Serves as symbols of recognition

Regular income is routine and expected, providing financial stability but lacking excitement or special recognition. Gift cards stand out as an acknowledgment of exceptional performance, enhancing the recipient’s sense of accomplishment beyond their regular paycheck.

Flexibility and personalization

Partnering with a company that offers thousands of gift card brands empowers employees with autonomy similar to cash. They can select a gift card that matches their preferences and needs, making the reward more meaningful and enhancing overall satisfaction and engagement.

Cost-effective alternative to cash

Issuing bulk gift cards is a cost-effective alternative to cash bonuses. Companies can purchase gift cards in bulk at discounted rates, maximizing their budget and rewarding more employees without increasing total expenditure. This is particularly advantageous for businesses with tight budgets or those wanting to award employees frequently.

How do you decide which gift cards to pick?

For a sales incentive program to succeed, businesses must choose gift cards that resonate with employees. Consider the brands’ geographical reach: some have a global presence, ideal for multi-location enterprises. Others cater to local tastes and needs. 

Discounts on bulk purchases also vary; selecting brands with better deals allows a company to stretch its incentive budget and reward more employees without increasing costs. Offering a variety of choices is vital, as employees highly value the freedom to select gift cards that match their preferences.

How do you pick a bulk gift card provider?

Extensive brand selection

Look for providers that offer a wide variety of brands. An ideal bulk gift card provider has access to thousands of brands, ensuring you cater to diverse employee wants.

Global accessibility

If your company operates internationally, choose a provider that supports global accessibility. This flexibility allows for a consistent incentive program across all locations, simplifying management and ensuring employees feel equally valued.

Simple integration and distribution

The ease of incorporating and distributing gift cards is crucial. Providers offering robust API support make integrating gift card distribution into your existing systems easy, minimizing administrative burdens and ensuring timely delivery of rewards.

Bulk savings

Investigate the discounts available on bulk purchases from different providers. Some may offer significant savings, allowing you to maximize your budget and honor more employees for small achievements.

Avoiding extra fees

Be aware of any potential service or partnership fees. The best providers offer transparent pricing without hidden costs, preserving the value of your incentive program.

How do you distribute and manage bulk gift cards effectively?

Effectively managing bulk gift cards requires meticulous planning. Define clear distribution criteria, segment your audience based on preferences, and schedule regular distributions to maintain motivation and engagement.

Integrate reward, HR, or payroll platforms with gift card providers via API to streamline distribution. This automation, triggered by events like meeting sales targets, saves time, reduces errors, and ensures timely benefit delivery. APIs also offer real-time tracking, facilitating prompt issue resolution.

Clear communication about the program’s mechanisms and expectations is crucial. Leaders should inform employees how and when they will receive their gift cards, establishing transparency.

How do you track and measure the success of gift card incentives?

Key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success

Start by identifying KPIs that align with your incentive program goals. Measure changes in sales metrics, such as revenue, conversion rates, and average order value, to assess the impact on driving sales. Monitor employee engagement through surveys, feedback, or satisfaction scores to evaluate motivation and retention. Track customer satisfaction metrics, like Net Promoter Score (NPS) and retention rates, to see if incentives improve loyalty. 

Companies should also consider other indicators—employee morale, turnover, and referral rates—for a comprehensive view of success.

Time frame for seeing results

Results from gift card incentives vary based on factors including program nature, industry, and goals. Immediate impacts, like sales improvements, may occur within weeks or months. Increased employee engagement or customer loyalty may need monitoring over quarters or years.

Importance of bulk gift card partner insights

Partner with a bulk gift card provider that offers insights and analytics. These providers deliver robust reporting capabilities and data analytics to track performance, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions to improve your incentive strategy continuously.

Conclusion: Partner with NeoCurrency to use bulk gift cards for sales incentives

In conclusion, this article emphasizes the importance of using bulk gift cards as incentives to motivate and honor sales teams effectively. It highlights how gift cards offer a tangible symbol of appreciation, provide flexibility and personalization, and are a cost-effective incentive solution.

Choosing the right gift cards and the provider is crucial. Consider brand selection, global accessibility, integration ease, and cost efficiency. Through effective distribution and management, constantly improve incentive programs and track success through KPIs.

With a global reach spanning over 120 countries, NeoCurrency provides cash-like payments accepted worldwide. Choose from our extensive selection of 2,000+ brands across more than 60 countries to personalize rewards for your team. 

Ready to revamp your sales incentive program? Request a demo today and discover how NeoCurrency revolutionizes your approach with bulk gift cards!

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What Are The The Pros and Cons of Employee Sales Incentive Programs?

Posted on by Geoff Miller

What are the Pros and Cons of Sales Incentive Programs?

No matter the scale of the enterprise or the diversity of location, one thing remains constant: the importance of an inspired and engaged sales team. Employee sales incentive programs promote a culture of recognition and reward, ensuring that hard work and dedication resonate across all corners of the organization.

Understanding sales incentive program objectives, advantages, and potential drawbacks is critical to crafting a strategy that truly resonates with employees. 

This article explores how sales incentive programs shape company culture, raise drive, and foster success.

What are sales incentive programs?

Sales incentive programs motivate and reward sales teams for hitting specific targets. They aim to boost sales, improve market share, raise product awareness, enhance customer satisfaction, and build team spirit. 

These programs set targets such as revenue goals and new customer acquisitions, offering financial incentives (like bonuses or gift cards) and non-financial incentives (from recognition to travel). Programs can be short-term or long-term, rewarding individual achievements, team efforts, or different levels of accomplishments.

What is the most common form of incentive for salespeople?

There are multiple ways to inspire salespeople successfully. While salaries and hourly wages provide stability and initial drive, options like commissions and bonuses directly tie earnings to performance and maintain steady motivation. For example, commissions, a typical sales incentive, encourage salespeople to close more deals by earning a percentage of their sales.

However, sales incentives go beyond commissions and purely closing deals. Businesses can reward employees for excellent customer interactions, company anniversaries, or a positive work attitude. These non-sales incentives are just as powerful, if not more, in motivating and engaging teams.

Sales incentives include cash and cash equivalents like gift cards, which are popular and effective due to their flexibility and broad appeal. Other popular incentives include travel rewards, recognition awards, high-end merchandise, professional development opportunities, and health and wellness benefits.

What is the objective of a sales incentive program?

The objective of a sales incentive program is to motivate and reward salespeople for achieving specific performance goals. In 2023, only 23 percent of employees strongly agreed that they received adequate recognition for their work. These programs aim to improve that statistic, increase worker happiness, and build a cohesive team. Doing this naturally drives sales and enhances customer satisfaction, too.

What are the advantages of sales incentive programs?

Employee sales incentive programs have a proven track record of success. They offer numerous advantages that support their objectives, grow sales, and provide significant benefits that make their implementation worthwhile.

Increased productivity

Sales incentive programs increase employee engagement by 3.7 percent, leading to substantial gains in productivity and profitability. Engaged employees are more inspired, dedicated, and likely to go above and beyond. This heightened level of engagement translates into better customer interactions, higher sales figures, and improved overall performance.

Reduced employee turnover

These programs also help to recognize and reward high performers, boosting morale and reducing employee turnover. Employees who receive frequent recognition are 68 percent less likely to feel burned out at work.

Lower turnover rates prevent business operations gaps and reduce the costs associated with hiring and training new employees. 

Enhanced company culture

A recent study showed 90 percent of employees consider incentive and recognition programs key to building culture and uniting a dispersed workforce. 

These programs align individual and team efforts with strategic objectives, ensuring that every branch of the enterprise works cohesively towards common targets, regardless of geographic boundaries.

Constant motivation

Among employees with great recognition experiences, 72 percent say their company frequently recognizes them for small tasks. Acknowledging minor achievements drives additional motivation because the praise is attainable rather than based on extensive goals. 

Gift cards are an excellent way to reward workers for small acts. Buying them in bulk saves money and allows companies to reward multiple employees frequently without significant costs. To keep it exciting, vary the stores for the gift cards to ensure the rewards remain fresh and appealing.

What are the disadvantages of sales incentives?

While employee sales incentive programs offer many benefits, they also have potential disadvantages. One risk is they can inadvertently encourage unethical behavior, such as misreporting sales or favoring customers with the highest incentive payouts. 

These programs sometimes favor specific departments or locations over others, leading to internal disparities and resentment within the company.

Another issue is some incentives are not universally appealing. If the rewards are only attractive to a small demographic, such as specific merchandise or niche experiences, they can fail to inspire the broader sales team. 

Cash incentives, while popular, can also have drawbacks. Over time, they may be viewed as part of regular income, diminishing their influence. Employees might come to expect these bonuses, which can reduce the sense of competition and make the rewards feel less meaningful.

In contrast, gift cards often feel more symbolic and valuable. They provide a tangible reward that stands out more than just extra numbers on a paycheck. For large companies, bulk gift cards are also the most flexible option, allowing employees to pick what suits them best—making them appealing to all.

Conclusion: Upgrade your sales incentive program

In this thorough exploration of sales incentive programs, we’ve uncovered their various aspects, from objectives and advantages to potential cons. These programs serve as powerful tools to excite and reward sales teams, driving productivity, reducing turnover, and fostering a positive company culture. 

One standout incentive option highlighted is gift cards, which offer flexibility and broad appeal. Gift cards provide tangible rewards that feel more symbolic and valuable than cash bonuses, making them an excellent choice for incentivizing sales teams. 

As enterprises and multi-location organizations strive to enhance their incentive strategies, NeoCurrency offers a solution tailored to their needs. With access to over 2000 brands across 60 countries, NeoCurrency provides unparalleled flexibility and choice for rewarding sales teams.

Request a demo today to discover how NeoCurrency can help your sales team thrive with innovative incentive solutions.

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The Power of Choosing the Right Gift Card API Provider

Posted on by Geoff Miller

By Eric Thiegs, Head of Strategy & Growth, NeoCurrency

Over my 25 years in the gift card industry, I’ve had a front row seat to the evolution of the industry. One of the most impactful developments was the introduction of gift card APIs.

In fact, I had the opportunity to be involved in launching one of the first gift card APIs to service real-time eGift distribution to both end users and corporate clients for B2B use cases in the loyalty, reward, and incentive industries. The revolution was on.

That was over 10 years ago.

Gift Card APIs in the present

Since then, APIs and gift cards have continued to change in myriad ways. So have the providers and the solutions they offer. It’s a dynamic and competitive industry, and choosing the wrong partner can cost a lot more than money. After all, the whole reason to utilize gift cards is to reward, engage or incentivize in some way, an employee, customer, member, participant or prize winner. Poor execution or under-delivery can have the exact opposite effect on your business or reputation that you were looking and paying for—and possibly even lead to legal issues.

“It’s a dynamic and competitive industry,
and choosing the wrong partner can cost a lot more than money”

In order to help you choose the right digital reward provider for your needs, I’ve put a checklist together for buyers and decision-makers who are looking to find a gift card API provider and solution both domestically in the US, internationally—or both, that will work best for their needs. The list is based on my experience over the course of my career, as well as what we hear from our own clients here at NeoCurrency every day. Asking providers to share details on each of the below API attributes, features, benefits, use cases and pricing will help you select the best gift card API.

1. What reward content does their Gift Card API offer?

A gift card API is only as good as its content, and so the most important feature of the best reward APIs is the ability to offer a wide variety of brands that provide flexibility and choice. Ask your gift card provider if the following products can be supplied through their API integration.

  • Closed Loop Cards: Brands ranging from Amazon, Google Play, Apple, Starbucks, etc.
  • Open Loop Prepaid Cards: VISA, MasterCard, American Express, etc.
  • Cash-Like Rewards: PayPal, Venmo
  • Digital Currency Rewards: Bitcoin, Ether, Dogecoin, etc.
  • Choose-your-own reward option: A universal reward link that allows the end recipient to select their reward/gift card
  • What, if any, other prizes, coupon codes, or digital content can be delivered in their API?

2. What currencies and countries are supported by their API?

Some clients need content relevant in one country. Others need eGift Cards with popular brands across a multi-country regions, an entire continent, or all of the above. Beyond the brands, it’s important to be able to deliver rewards in the appropriate currencies for many reasons. Understanding a partner’s capabilities domestically and across the globe is key, especially if there’s a chance you’ll need coverage in a new region as your platform grows.

3. How easy is the integration of their Gift Card API?

Most Gift Card APIs boast a suite of powerful features from seamless ordering and robust security options to easy, free sandbox access for testing. Getting access to all of the great features; however, can be a challenge. You’ll want to ask your provider about how quickly the API can be deployed and inquire if the API documentation is developer-friendly. You’ll also want to know if it’s easy to work with the provider’s team to launch sandbox testing and move quickly into production. A tech call with your potential provider will quickly tell you how collaborative, supportive, and trustworthy the team is behind the API solution. If they don’t want you to talk to their tech representatives, it’s probably a red flag.

4. What kind of account support do they offer?

On-going account support is a key attribute that sets many Gift Card APIs apart. Whether you’re a small business or an enterprise-level corporate client, the reward API you use should grow with you. And you should have the support you need to answer questions and troubleshoot issues. Whether it’s new content, 24/7 self-serve account access, or strong customer service, you’ll want to ask your potential partner to outline, specifically, how they will support your account.

5. What are the KPIs of their Gift Card API?

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are the lifeblood of every good API. Ask your potential gift card provider for metrics around the up-time, load tolerance, scalability, and error rate of their API. Because let’s face it, if the API doesn’t work, it will hurt you. You’ll want to understand the platform’s reliability, downtime risk, and other performance attributes that may impact the API service.

6. What are the costs and fees associated with their API?

Not all Gift Card APIs use the same pricing structure. To get a transparent understanding of the commercial components, you’ll want to ask your provider about all fees associated with their API including the cost of the eGift or prepaid products sourced through the API, setup fees, transaction fees, delivery fees, email template fees, email delivery fees, SaaS fees, or hosting/service fees.

NeoCurrency Stacks up.

NeoCurrency delivers rewards and incentives all over the world.

Since I’m suggesting you ask all of these questions to any gift care API provider you are interested in talking with, here is a quick cheat sheet of how we would answer these questions at NeoCurrency.

1. What reward content does NeoCurrency’s Gift Card API offer?

NeoCurrency offers over 2,000 digital reward options from the biggest brands you expect, to more localized relevant brands that provide more unique offerings around the world—all through a single API integration.

2. What currencies and countries are supported by NeoCurrency’s Gift Card API?

NeoCurrency’s API content covers 140+ countries across six continents in 50 currencies. We offer a multi-currency, global API for clients who need just one country/currency or those that need access to digital rewards across the world. Among many other benefits, being able to redeem in so many currencies helps our clients save money on conversion fees they’d otherwise have to pay.

3. How easy is the integration of NeoCurrency’s Gift Card API?

The team here at NeoCurrency takes pride in our ability to quickly and easily support clients who are integrating into our gift card API. This includes:

  • A four-tier account service support structure
  • Fast access to sandbox account access with test funds
  • Same day/24-hour turn time on technical questions during integration
  • Fast production turn time

We’ve been grateful to have clients praise us on our integration support and turn-time. If APIs provide real-time access to rewards, the team supporting the integration should be as real-time as possible during the set-up, too.

4. What kind of account support does NeoCurrency offer?

Taking care of our clients is something we’ve prided ourselves on since we started the company. We focus relentlessly on providing:

  • Global multi-time zone account service support
  • 24/7 self-service access and control to your API via an account dashboard
  • Real-time, self-service reporting available 24/7
  • Full program assets available for download 24/7 (brand logos, T&Cs, card images, etc) within your dashboard
  • 4-tiered account service support structure that includes customer service, client success, executive and C-level contacts

5. What are the KPIs of their Gift Card API?

At NeoCurrency, we work hard to make sure your rewards are getting where they need to go, when you want them to get there. We are proud to consistently track in the very top of some critical industry KPIS including:

  • 99.999% uptime
  • 0.002% error rate
  • 1-2 second avg API response time

6. What are the costs and fees associated with NeoCurrency’s API?

We’re allergic to fees here at NeoCurrency which is why you’ll pay:

  • NO set-up fees
  • NO transaction fees
  • NO delivery fees
  • NO email template fees
  • NO email delivery fees
  • NO SaaS fees
  • NO hosting/service fees
  • NO minimums

Our pricing is simple. Our clients pay as they go for the reward content they order through the API. We have a global rate that can be sent for review, and pricing is accessed in the client’s API dashboard for viewing and reporting 24/7.

Summary

Today’s Gift Card APIs are very different than the ones I began implementing with clients 10 years ago. Your program deserves the best reward API provider; one that offers a comprehensive solution that not only meets but exceeds industry standards and offers you the scalability, security, content, and global reach to make your programs successful.

I hope you find this list to be helpful, and I’d be happy to answer any other questions you may have about the general gift card API marketplace or, specifically, our NeoCurrency reward API solution. All of us at NeoCurrency think we have something uniquely special here, and we’d love to share it with you in detail.