Gift Cards: The Gift That Keeps On Giving (To the Retailer, Too)

From Bookweb.org:

Over recent months, there's certainly been no shortage of media reports touting the burgeoning mass appeal of gift cards. According to gift card sales figures recently compiled by ABA, sales of Book Sense gift cards increased by 256 percent in December 2004, compared with the same period last year. Less reported on, however, is how a little inventive marketing can push those numbers even higher. The significant advantage of gift cards is that they can be displayed throughout the store since they have no monetary value before being activated. And the card lends itself to creative, and sometimes publisher subsidized, promotions. "The idea is to put the cards as many places as possible," said ABA Marketing Director Jill Perlstein. "Booksellers can use things from a stationery supply store or from home to display the cards. Anything that can be used to hold photographs can be used for gift cards--a wire tree, picture frames -- it can be fun to create different merchandizing ideas."

Read the rest here. Update: link is now broken.