Strategies to Build A Stronger Direct Digital Gift Card Program

This is Total Retail Tech Insights. The content retail executives need to optimize their use of technology throughout their organizations. Hello, and welcome to this episode of Total Retail Tech Insights. I'm Joe Keenan, the Editor-in-Chief of Total Retail.

And I'm pleased to be joined on today's episode by Sarah Kozitzky. Sarah is the Global Insights Director at BHN, Blackhawk Network. And we're going to be talking to Sarah about the recently released ninth annual Best Direct Digital Gift Cards Benchmark Report that BHN has produced in conjunction with NAPCO Research. Some really great insights from that report that we're going to kind of dive into as well.

Let's give you kind of the lay of the land in terms of the gift card market and some of the interesting things that are happening in that landscape. So, Sarah, thanks for joining me on today's episode. Thanks so much, Joe. This is a great podcast to be a part of, and I'm excited today to share a lot about this NAPCO report that we work on with you guys.

Yeah. So before we jump into the report, I think a lot of in the audience are probably familiar with Blackhawk Network, but for those that are not, maybe can you just give us a quick overview of the organization? Yeah. So a little bit about BHN or Blackhawk Network.

We are really the single global platform businesses of all kinds can really tap into the world's largest network of branded payment solutions. BHN really helps businesses grow revenue, increase loyalty, motivate and reward their teams, disperse funds, and engage consumers. We have branded payment solutions that include the issuance and distribution of gift cards, e-gifts, everybody's most popular, those digital cards, corporate payouts and rewards, along with technology to deliver these products in a seamless, integrated way.

BHN's network spans the globe with more than 400,000 consumer touch points. So, you know, a very large global organization with a lot to do with gift cards and branded payments for sure. Thank you for that. So tell me, I mentioned your title, Global Insights Director.

Tell me a little bit about your role at Blackhawk. Sure. So I've been at Blackhawk almost for five years. And, you know, the team that I have, we study everything from B2B behavior in buying gift cards or selling gift cards to consumers to consumer behavior with the end product and sort of the thoughts, the feelings, the emotions, all the things that really connect that end consumer to that payment that they've received, which could be across multiple channels.

So we're really into kind of understanding the landscape of how payments and gift cards impact people's everyday lives. So as you noted, BHN, recognized leader in the gift card market. I'd love for you to kind of give an overview for our audience at the current gift card trends that you're seeing. Any insights you're able to share in terms of what you're seeing out there in the market in terms of gift cards?

Yeah. So I think gift cards really do tend to be one of the retailers' strongest growth opportunities. When we were looking across the globe at the market reports, it looks like by 2030, they anticipate that across the world, gift cards will attribute to $1.7 trillion.

So that's a huge market opportunity. And lots of people definitely, again, use these things on a day-to-day basis. You know, digital gift cards too are actually growing at twice the rate as physical gift cards. So again, we're here to definitely highlight that digital gift card experience and digital is definitely growing even faster than physical cards.

And I think too, one of our favorite things, consumers are purchasing gift cards beyond the holidays. So on average, when we ask consumers, it's about nine cards over the course of a year. Because again, I always say birthdays are every day. They're 365 days a year.

Somebody's got a birthday out there and they need a card. There's always the really special occasions like Mother's Day, Father's Day. And then of course, we're coming up on the biggest occasion of them all, which is the winter holidays. And we definitely see a lot of gift cards being purchased for that particular, you know, Stephen.

And I would say too, one of the things that we saw, physical cards are definitely being purchased across the holiday season. But when we looked or asked consumers about Christmas Day and Christmas Eve, we actually saw about 80% purchasing digital cards. So again, a huge kind of undertaking to make sure that you've really got your digital program working really well because that's a day where you're going to probably see a lot of sales coming through and then of course we can't go and talk about you know all of these things without mentioning the word ai so ai is definitely also starting to shape consumer behavior as they think about how to sort of search and look and find the best gift for the best person and so we're seeing a lot of things attribute to gift cards within there too, because again, trying to make sure that you've got everything covered.

Sometimes that gift card is the best answer at the end of the day. And to build on your point about gift cards being a strong growth opportunity for retailers, the National Retail Federation, and this is actually a data point we cited in the report that we're going to talk about. I believe it was 18 years in a row now running that gift cards have been the most requested holiday gift. So that tells you the demand from consumers is there.

And it's really about retailers kind of capitalizing on that opportunity, which brings us to the annual report where we, Napco Research and BHN collaborate. This year, it was the ninth annual Best Direct Digital Gift Cards Benchmark Report. So with that kind of framing, I'd love for you, Sarah, to tell us a little bit about why BHN and Napco continue to partner to produce this research report? No, so this research is really impactful for our industry.

And I think we have a lot of partners and even prospects who are looking forward to seeing this report year in and year out because everyone wants to know, of course, you know, did they make the top spot? But they also want to be able to look at who did and why. So understanding sort of the nuances that go into really having that best in class program, it gives kind of that extra like motivation to really see kind of where you fall within all of the realm of merchants within your vertical or even outside of your vertical, but then to see how can I make changes?

How can I continue to improve my program so that it is really starting to be best in class? I also think, you know, it helps really drive that customer experience at the end. I mentioned, you know, we're often doing research with B2B, but then also that consumer who's on the recipient end or who's on the buying end. And so, again, being able to understand each element of that journey and how it's impacting the customer experience, because as a merchant, as a brand, we want them to come back.

We want them to have such a great experience that they couldn't possibly think of anywhere else to go when that need arises. It also helps us to understand the changing landscape of consumer expectations and technology that's within the marketplace. So by being able to benchmark year over year, we can always also tell where some of those changes and the evolution to programs are starting to happen so that we can keep up with all of those things and be at the forefront of some of the changes as well.

So I think from that landscape, it helps really BHN understand where the puck is moving in terms of being able to build a better experience and to be able to deliver a better experience through our partners to that end consumer. And it's really not just ranking, although I know everybody loves the ranking, right? Like that's what we always are almost like drum roll when we get to that page in the webinar. but it is understanding what those actionable recommendations are to, again, help improve that merchant or brand's own program.

So it's really, it's like, yes, the rankings are important, but I love it when Nathan dives into some of the things that are like, hey, but did you know these are the key elements that really helped to drive this program to the number one spot? And I feel like that is what keeps us continuing to come back to this report because it is that incredibly valuable to us and to our partners and prospects. Yeah. Yeah.

To your point, Sarah, as somebody that has worked on this report year over year for, for many years, you know, it is a, it is a really valuable mix of that benchmark data, those rankings that you talked about that, that often grab the headlines, but then there are those, you know, best practices that are kind of woven throughout the report. There is the real world examples that, you know, provide snapshots of, interesting tools and features of different gift card programs from leading merchants.

So it is a really nice mix of that data, but also those best practices and real world examples as well. So with that context about why this report is produced, maybe you can go provide a little further detail in terms of the methodology. What is this report encompass? How is it produced essentially?

Yeah. So I think that's always one of the biggest questions that we get, Joe, is honestly, it's like, okay, so you guys do all this work, you come back with these scores, right? And to be fair, this is the ninth annual one, and it is this extremely comprehensive report. So I would say what it is not is hundreds of surveys being taken about your brand or consumers just filling out you know information that says yeah I could find it or yeah I could do this It truly is this assessor And I often attribute it to like a mechanic with a car because you got the assessor who's truly going through all the finite details of that website, of the app, of the mobile website, and trying to make sure that if they were that person who was coming to the site to really look for gift cards, you know, can they find them?

So it's everything from discoverability, the moment I get to your site, to can I check out smoothly? Can I get it delivered? What does the recipient experience start to look like? Do you have integrations into a B2B program?

Do you have marketing? And just not marketing alone on your channel, but marketing outside of your channel. Because I will say one of the things that we found in some of our other research was this notion that, you know, traditional channels of marketing are definitely still used and leveraged by a lot of consumers. but we're seeing younger generations, so your Gen Z and your millennials, really sort of looking for alternatives in that social space or maybe on coupon sites or other channels where they are more often to look for value in deals.

This year too, I think one of the key things about this report is, you know, it's not just one merchant that we're looking at. We're looking at about 120. And for the first time this year, we actually had 10 Canadian brands included, which was a really interesting look at sort of how these brands play across the U.S.

versus Canada. And, you know, when I mentioned the car mechanic, they're probably doing 150-point inspection, but our benchmark study is actually 147 criteria. And again, it's across that purchaser and recipient experience. and one of the things too I would say is that we had new verticals this year so again we're always looking to improve enhance find opportunities to really bring this to life in different ways and this year we included things like auto and automotive we had discount and dollar stores in there we looked at on-demand services and then also pet supplies and then again with that evolution of the report, Joe, we were also able to really infuse some new categories into the mix too, because again, I mentioned how this is really impactful from both kind of just an understanding of the current landscape, but also that future landscape that's ahead.

So we looked at things like how does AI search impact the ability to find cars? What about group gifting? Is there an easy way for me to group gift, especially thinking about the holidays upcoming or a wedding that you might have, baby showers. Is there things like animated cards?

Like how are we bringing to life that recipient experience so that, you know, you really feel like this digital gift is delivered in a way that makes it feel special and come to life? Are there things with delivery notifications and who gets those delivery notifications to know that like, if I sent a card to Joe, Joe really got it and he actually used it so that I feel like, hey, this definitely hit the mark. And then just the purchase flow too. But again, this bar keeps rising, things keep changing.

And so again, this benchmark helps us to kind of see that changing landscape of how gift cards are being really brought to life in both that purchaser and recipient side. Yeah, you've done a great job of kind of outlining how comprehensive this report is. 147 criteria across 120 brands. Just start doing the math in your head and the amount of data that's being collected.

So that is certainly true. One of the things I found interesting, Sarah, is that you talked about some of the new evaluation criteria that was introduced into the 2026 report. Tell me a little bit about kind of the thought process at BHN in terms of why the evaluation criteria might change year over year. Yeah, well, I think, you know, consumer expectations are changing, right?

Like as technology continues to evolve, their expectations for how they're going to search for something, how they expect things to work, how they, you know, want that experience delivered. There's always kind of these little things that are like, well, so-and-so is doing it. Why can't everybody do it that way? Right?

So it's like you almost have to kind of keep up with what's happening in tech so that you can stay ahead and relevant to that next group of consumers. So again, I think, you know, it's never standing still. It's always a moving puck. And I want to say too, like, we also have to think about the tools that people are leveraging.

So, you know, today it might be Google and they've got their, you know, AI tools through Google. But what if tomorrow they're like, you know what, Google's not enough. I need to now have a paid subscription to chat tpt what if chat tpt becomes not enough like what is that next thing that they're going to leverage that helps kind of again bring to life what should i give somebody what should i do and again that's where we have to stay focused on you know different capabilities and things that are really coming into that marketplace um i also think too like oftentimes when we've done a lot of of our research, people tell us that they deliver digital cards to folks because they have that ability to deliver it to the day and the time that they really want.

It could be like a birthday and you could be like, my dad always celebrates at 9am on this day because then he said that's when he turns the next age over. And so to be able to have that exact flexibility too is like, okay, great. But like, what if there's something else that comes out and you're like, oh, but now we've got to track and monitor that as well. So everything that we do really is about how does it impact that customer experience and how are we going to be able to then track it as well.

So I think we've made the audience wait. I know everyone's probably interested and excited to hear who are the winners this year? What were the kind of the rankings? What were some of the key highlights from this year's report?

So Sarah, I'll let you address some of the key findings or highlights from this year's report? Joe, I told you, this is always the one where you get the drum roll because everybody wants to know. So this year, I'll just start out kind of high level, but I mentioned we had the 120 brands. The overall score was actually 67%, which was flat two last year.

So that's actually good. Like we would always want it to improve, but flat is also equally good because it means people are definitely paying attention to their programs. Maybe they've tried new things. To me, at Best Life, they've definitely invested some time within their own programs.

And without further ado, because everybody always wants to know who are the winners, this year we had for the direct digital gift cards, it was Best Buy in number one, followed by Amazon in number two, and Staples in number three. For our Canadian brands, Lululemon was in first and followed by the Home Depot. So as I mentioned, it's great to know kind of who the top performers are, but it'd be also remiss if I didn't say a little bit about why. So for these top performers, it's really about they scored well on discoverability.

They had a lot of promotions that were put out there. And I will say to this audience that, you know, we check a couple times throughout this assessment to really look at programs and the marketing that could be done because this This is oftentimes right around that Black Friday's, Cyber Monday holiday when really your heaviest promotion should be out there really kind of promoting your brand, promoting people to come and get gift cards or gifts in general. And so a lot of them did have those promotions in play.

They also more often than not had an SMS delivery. So thinking about, you know, people are creatures of habit. If they are more apt to communicate via their text or mobile devices using sort of like a WhatsApp or something like that, that is exactly how they want to send that gift card as well. And then just the overall mobile experience, they had kind of an elevated experience compared to some of the other merchants within the benchmark.

Even with that, there are opportunities for improvement. So even amongst the top performers, one of the two biggest areas that really stood out to us when we looked across all of that data was marketing and customer service. So again, you know, knowing that you can reach out and be able to take care of issues really easily is important to people, especially this day and age. Some people just want to chat.

Some people want email, but they expect like a response further quickly, especially if they're buying it at the holidays. You know, they may not have time to wait. And then the marketing, as I mentioned earlier, like there are different channels that should be explored for how to best promote your brand, especially given where that audience is shifting. I'm sort of looking for marketing promotions, whether or not you have gift cards.

Yeah, and I was going to add, as we noted, we've partnered with BHN on this report for each year it's been produced. direct digital, what we mean by that is that, and Sarah, you've alluded to this as well, is that you're going directly to that merchant's, either their website or their app and buying one of that merchant's digital gift cards. So for example, I'm going to the Best Buy website. I am going and purchasing a digital Best Buy gift card.

I'm not going to purchase another merchant's gift card from Best Buy's website. So a third party essentially. So just to clarify there on what we mean by direct digital Also I appreciate you kind of calling out where the top performing programs excelled and kind of what differentiated them from the rest of the merchants in the rankings Looking at those top performing merchant programs, what are some of the best practices that stood out in your mind? Yeah.

So I think, you know, one of the things I mentioned was discoverability. So what does that really mean? It's making your gift cards really easy to find. So are they in kind of that header Are they in some kind of a menu that I'm having to drop down?

Honestly, if they're in a footer, that's a little bit more on that difficult side. And so you may not get as many kind of, you know, folks finding that program. And if you have to search for them, that is like the end all be all because nobody wants to search for something. They just want to be able to see kind of that clickable button that says, hey, here's gift card.

Boom, done. Take me to the page. So making sure that when you have that program, it's really easy to find. You know, I mentioned birthdays are 365 days a year.

So running promotions is also something that's really impactful to those top performers. They're running promotions all year round. It's not just that they're waiting for these magical occasions or special occasions that are coming up. It's also the SMS delivery image.

And that was one of the top things. And so again, finding that way to have that communication, it seemed really natural between the person who is purchasing the gift card to the person who's receiving it. Just having that flow of communication is so important. And then investing in mobile experiences.

I don't know anybody who isn't on an app today or, you know, driven to using their phone when they're sitting at some events that they've got time. You know, everybody's out searching for things on their phone. They're hardly ever at a desktop anymore. And then giving customers flexibility.

So whether it's delivery, I mentioned how important, especially around the holidays, being able to deliver to the day and time that you really want. Offering that opportunity to really personalize the experience, whether it's a message or whether it's animation or whether it's adding your own picture and video to a card. The payment method. So again, people are oftentimes looking for multiple payment options because they have different ways in which they want to pay.

And then just within the gift card design is really important as well. And supporting digital wallets. We see a lot of people who want to be able to add your card directly into a digital wallet. So being able to do that.

And then also treating gift cards as kind of the strategic product rather than an afterthought. And what I mean by that is like, hey, can I add this to a wish list? Can I see if I'm searching for something like home goods? Am I going to get kind of that home goods gift card first on your site or your, you know, your branded card?

Because again, you offer home goods. I should be able to get your card so that maybe if I can't find exactly what I want, I have the card and I can go in store or I have the card and, you know, I can go online at a later date when I think maybe some new merchandise is coming to the store. So again, I think those are the things that top performers really stood out with this year. Yeah.

And I love that last point about thinking about it as a strategic product, because in the, you know, thinking from a merchant's perspective, it's a high margin product, right? These gift cards can be a high margin product. There's also that factor where consumers spend more than the value of the gift card, right? So that you kind of get that overage on whatever the gift card amount is.

If they got a gift card for $50, a lot of times in a lot of cases, they're going to spend that recipient is going to spend more than the $50 that they've received on the gift card. So it's a, it's a real opportunity. There also can be a new customer acquisition opportunity for merchants that gift card recipients might not be familiar with the brand. So you're pulling them kind of this new customer into the mix as well.

So you're, you're expanding your customer universe. So I love that thought of treating gift cards as a strategic product rather than just kind of an afterthought to get secondary treatment on your website or in your stores. No, I love that, Joe. And if I could just add, I think one of the things that we saw in the last post-holiday study, so again, thinking about the cards that were delivered over the holidays, I think it was close to 25% of people had a gift card to a brand new brand, right?

So you are, again, it's kind of a driven loyalty, right? You've got like somebody who's net new coming into the door with that card. You probably know they're going to overspend, but what an opportunity to really engage with them at that point and show them kind of what you're all about. Yeah, that's a great point.

And thanks for that data point, Sarah. So we identified some of the highlights from the top performers. You also can learn from the brands that scored lower in the rankings. So what were some of the things, key themes that you saw from some of the other brands that maybe not in that top tier of merchants?

Yeah, so it's kind of like the opposites, right? So looking at those that really had sort of a lower performance, like their discoverability was really difficult. So as I mentioned, you probably had to search in order to see if they even had gift cards within their, you know, their website or their app. You also had sort of this weaker mobile experience.

So again, not as seamless, not maybe as nice or, you know, the functionality for searching and kind of looking for, you know, the card. It just wasn't there. And there weren't as many personalization options. So like, you know, you were left kind of with the card that was really selected by that brand, which again, I love brands because they have their own set of guidelines on how to merchandise.

But again, if you could bring to life a little bit more in terms of how the end customer really wants to be able to deliver it to their recipient, it does help sort of build that relationship. There are also things with just poor recipient experiences. So, you know, we often look for things like, hey, we really want to be able to have, you know, that recipient receive something. It needs to look very branded.

It needs to fit with the colors and stuff like that. And this time around, I would say maybe, you know, it came, but it just didn't fit with the brand's narrative. Then we also saw kind of a lack of split tender capabilities and not being able to recognize the different payment options and be able to split them as you might want. And there was some limited wallet integrations, too.

I mentioned a lot of people are really interested in having that card download to a digital wallet. So that was maybe lacking in some cases. and it was really difficult balance checking. So again, often people are like, hey, I don't quite know how much is on here or somebody didn't give me the exact dollar amount because it was in a range or maybe I lost it in the email and now I can't remember how much I have.

And so again, being able to easily check that balance is really important. I would say one of the biggest themes though that many brands are still sort of treating cards like a standalone product rather than integrating them throughout the customer journey. And I know, Joe, you mentioned, you know, it's really important to kind of have them more as that strategic product. And I know we talked a little bit about what that means.

And I would say that's where some of it is also lacking. So you alluded at the outset of our conversation, Sarah, that AI, obviously, it's kind of this unavoidable topic. We're going to have to talk about that and how it's influencing gift cards. It's been a bigger focus in this year's report.

Can you talk a little bit about how AI is changing what makes a successful gift card program? What are some of the new things that you need to be thinking about as a merchant in terms of how AI can be incorporated into the gift card programs? Yeah, so AI is definitely that hot topic. I would think, you know, within this particular research, what we have found, and within some really other research as well, consumers are really beginning their shopping journey with AI.

So it's kind of starting at the forefront to really look at, you know, what are the best prices? What are the brands that I should really consider for somebody? Maybe I've got that hard to gift for a person. Like what are, you know, maybe I'm not an adventure seeker, but I know somebody who is, and I'm like, gosh, I just don't know exactly what to get done.

So you really do kind of begin your journey with an AI search to say, I've got this adventure speaker, like, what would they like? And then I'm sure if you get overwhelmed, you're just like, yes, but a gift card to one of their favorite places or a place that has things that could really allow for them to have that adventure, right? Seems like the right fit. So again, I think that's where you really want to make sure that your brand is also showing up within those searches as well.

And again, I think too, when we look at gift card landing pages, it should really clearly describe some of those use cases, some of the occasions for which you might think this card could fit for, although it could be truly any occasion. And maybe some, you know, key things around a persona of like, yes, if you have somebody who's the adventure seeker who loves to go hiking on the weekends, like this is the card for them, right? Because again, this is the store that really can help them kind of fulfill that dream of going and seeking adventure.

I think also, So you've got to just prepare yourself to be much more visible as AI shopping continues to grow too. And what I mean by that is I'm sure we've all heard agente commerce. And again, right now today, what we found is that about 8% are starting to leverage AI to really fulfill the entire purchase journey, but that could grow. And I'm excited to see we've got some new research that's upcoming as to whether or not like we'll start to see, you know, more and more consider using that as just the way to fulfill everything from front end search all the way through to delivery.

We've talked about many facets of a successful direct digital gift card program. If we were going to think about kind of narrowing our focus and recommending maybe a few investments that would deliver the biggest ROI for a brand direct digital gift card program What would those be in your mind, Sarah? Yeah. So I think, you know, delivering on that high ROI, right?

Like what are the things that brands or merchants should really consider investing in as we think to the year ahead? I would say it's better gift card discoverability. So if you're somebody as a brand who still has to have consumers search for your gift card within that search box. Let's put it front and center.

Let's make it really visible. Also, stronger landing pages. So, you know, giving a lot of information about here's this particular card, here are the values and dollar amounts, here's some personalization offers, and then really that reason to buy, and then also being able to give them some FAQs. So if there are questions like, hey, can I use this card in store, online?

You know, does it fit into a digital wallet? Does it do this? How can I send it? Can I be flexible with my date?

You know, making sure that at a glance, people understand sort of how everything works with your gift card program and more flexible delivery options. So again, as I mentioned, some people are like, I've got it to the day and the time that I really want it to be delivered versus, hey, I just need it to get there tomorrow, or I need to get it there within the next 24 hours. Also, thinking about how your mobile program comes to life. I mentioned earlier, a lot of people are really leveraging mobile as the channel of purchase.

And so making sure that your mobile program also is really well optimized from discoverability through to being able to kind of buy real easily, adding that personalization that you might want. and being able to get it across the wire. And then I would say also looking at payment. So again, how many payment types do you offer that guest today in terms of being able to pay for gifts?

Do you have a buy now, pay later program associated with gift cards? Do you have PayPal? Do you have credit and debit? Of course, probably, right?

But again, any sort of additional ways that you can give people the opportunity to pay for it will extend that program and be able to reach a broader audience. So having been involved in this report for multiple years, Sarah, one of the things I think is interesting is you've talked about a lot of the key findings, but there's always some things that are kind of interesting nuggets, surprises, I'll say, that come out of the data. Are there a couple of things that are most surprising to you from this year's research?

Yeah. So I would say, again, maybe a surprise, maybe not a surprise, but how quickly AI has become kind of this meaningful evaluation criteria. So I think, you know, this was one that was brand new to us this year. But again, it has been such a meaningful one that we needed to add again with the ever-changing landscape of AI.

And again, we're kind of already thinking through and working with NAPCO on like, how do we evolve AI even more next year? And what should we really be thinking about when it comes to that one? and then I think the continuing gap between desktop and mobile experiences so again I mentioned a lot more people are on their mobile apps they're purchasing on their mobile apps and so just you know thinking through kind of again you've got the desktop and you probably have optimized that because the last several years really has been where people are shopping but now that it's kind of evolving to more of that mobile it's just how interesting like there are some still some big differences and gaps between what's being delivered desktop wise versus what's being delivered mobile.

So I'm hopeful that as we continue, you know, capturing data and insight that we continue to see that gap shrink. And then how many brands are still struggling with discoverability? Because again, you know, some of them is so easy. You go to the website, like a Best Buy, you see it up in the header, you click on it, you know that you're going to get to Best buy a gift card, you know, you're going to be able to buy it right away.

Other brands, again, I'm mentioning you've got to search. You actually have to go into the search box and be like, hey, can I find this particular brand's gift card? And it's just, you know, you think about it, right? As a consumer who's buying these, if you have a really, you know, easy experience at one, it's almost like that's the level of expectation that now has been set.

And so if you're a brand who hasn't quite reached that pinnacle yet. Now that consumer is left sort of thinking, but I have this experience over here versus this one over here. How is it and why is it so different? Yeah, to your point from the consumer's eyes, they're not gonna spend a ton of time trying to find your gift card.

If it's not easily available, chances are they're gonna move on, right? So it's a missed opportunity as you noted there, Sarah. We like to think of this report And obviously we mentioned we've partnered here with BHN to produce the report as the learning tool, right? You know, it's chock full of great data, but it also offers those best practices, those takeaways that listeners can potentially implement into their own gift card program.

So with that in mind, are there a few takeaways you'd want to share with our audience today? Yeah, so I think, you know, a few things are this report. so if you go and download it which i'll give you some information in a moment on how to do that it outlines 10 building blocks for kind of a stronger direct gift card program and a few things that really stand out as the highest impact moves and a few of our top actual items so again the importance of mobile growth in this channel is outpacing desktop driven e-commerce sales.

Critical. Investment in a wide selection. So again, thinking about the card types, whether it's digital, physical, payment options, as I mentioned earlier, being able to support a number of payment options as everybody has kind of a different payment plan or idea in mind. Delivery options are really critical.

Again, being able to deliver not just to an email, but also to SMS, us and then delivery options in terms of flexible timing. Build a checkout that works every single time. It's surprising to us that each year when we go and execute this program and this benchmark, we still continue to find programs that have allowed us to basically not receive a card because we couldn't finish the checkout. Like that always surprises me.

I'm like, how can we not finish the checkout? Like we are here as a valued customer. We want to build this brand with you. We want to be able to buy a gift card.

And then be loud and proud about your gift cards. The brands that really treat these as that strategic growth channel rather than just a seasonal product are really consistently outperforming their competitors, again, because they've thought of it as that strategic product versus just sort of this one thing that's on my website that I sell. You know, one of the things too, I mentioned we had 120 brands in this study. It does seem like a lot of brands, but we know that there's a ton of brands across the U.

S. and Canada. So if you didn't get included in this program this year, one of the things that we have created is actually go and test your own program. And we've got a series of questions that we can share with you, you know, just to kind of get that look of, okay, can I find my gift card?

Can I do this? this? Can I make sure that it checks out appropriately? Can I make sure that I can do some personalization?

Sort of evaluating really what your end experience to your customer looks like. And then great programs are really built around a great customer experience. So again, as you think about your program, kind of look at it through the lens of the end consumer. Would this be something that you would be happy to get?

Would this be something that would really surprise and delight you as that recipient. So again, those are the things that I would say are the most impactful. So we've covered basically every angle of this report and you've got, you know, for the last 30, 35 minutes, we've talked about all the great insights you can get from this report. So with that in mind, let's tell our audience where they can find and download the 2026 direct digital gift card report from BHN.

Thank you, Joe. So I think there's good news is there's three places that you can find this report. So the report is actually linked below. You can also go to the resource library section on the total retail website to find it, as well as you can go on to BHN's website to find it within the resources and insight section under research.

And it'll be probably one of the latest and greatest research pieces that will be there. So three ways to find the report for this year. Yep. And just echoing what Sarah said, make sure to check it out.

You know, she's touched on some of the great insights, but we really have only kind of gotten to the tip of the iceberg here. There's much more in the report, a very comprehensive report. So again, go to check it out. It is the ninth annual Best Direct Digital Gift Cards Benchmark Report produced by NAPCO Research in partnership with BHN.

I want to take the opportunity to thank Sarah Kozitzky, Global Insights Director at BHN, for joining us on this episode of Total Retail Tech Insights. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you so much, Joe. It's been a pleasure.

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