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Nearly three in four consumers
for the explicit reason of trying to help them weather the
downturn. COVID also has driven interest in digital gift also told Fiserv researchers that
cards for obvious reasons. After all, it's a touchless way to they regularly purchase gift cards
buy and to gift.
Sticky merchant relationships from small businesses. This is
an important data point, because
So, what are the benefits to ISOs and merchant level
salespeople (MLSs) selling gift cards? New residual gift cards can be a free source of
streams, of course, like the markup on monthly program money for those businesses.
fees and a split of income generated by plastic card orders.
And there are the obvious opportunities to help merchants
grow their businesses, which, in turn, grows ISO and MLS cards online (say with a gift card button), there's the added
businesses.
hassle of getting on a web developer's schedule to effect
the change.
But perhaps the biggest draw is merchant stickiness.
Selling merchant accounts is only one part of the ISO/ ISOs and MLSs put a lot of time and effort into signing
MLS relationship success formula. Keeping them from and boarding new merchants. But all too often it's a zero-
switching providers is another. Gift card programs can sum game, as existing accounts cancel for new, seemingly
play a role in keeping merchants from defecting.
better offers at roughly the same rate as new accounts
are boarded. Offering a good gift card program can help
Switching out a gift card program is a lot more complex reverse that trend and makes for stickier relationships.
than just signing an agreement. When a merchant gets
set up on a gift card program the gift card file needs to
be integrated with the merchant's payment processing Patti Murphy is senior editor at The Green Sheet and self-described pay-
hardware and software; switching providers means ments maven of the fourth estate. Follow her on Twitter @GS_PayMaven.
swapping out those integrations. If they are selling the