Following last June’s acquisition of the largest provider of gift card solutions in the U.S., Gift Card Impressions (GCI) by InComm, the leading payments technology company, PaymentsJournal sat down with GCI’s founder and CEO, Brett Glass.
GCI was the latest acquisition by InComm, who last January announced it added to its catalog brands such as Barnes & Noble, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Outback Steakhouse, and Sephora The GCI team brings knowledge from their research and experience in the consumer packaged goods industry. By keeping the company’s management intact and located in their original Kansas City headquarters, InComm hopes to “drive the growth of physical and digital gift card sales,” according to a day-of-purchase press release.
For GCI, which is “bringing the gift back to gift cards™,” the next big thing is micro gifting, or “a gift that’s under $20,” says Glass. “We estimate that about 26% of all gifting is in the form of a micro gift. Today we think the gift card industry is very underserved in this segment.”
Getting the concept of micro gifting off the ground obviously requires an angle that’s both consumer-friendly and business-savvy. Personalization and Engagment is the name of the game, according to Glass.
“How do you give a gift that’s worth $7 or $12 but still make it exciting? You’ve got to change the game in the way you deliver that, and so our vision is to make it more product- or item-focused.”
Glass provides the examples of two movie tickets or a Cosmo cocktail at the giftee’s favorite restaurant. That level of customization personalizes the gift and improves the experience compared to the denomination-focused gift cards as they stand today.
According to a 2017 Mercator report, the concept of gift cards is alive and kicking—with gift card loads growing by 6% in 2016 and expected to reach $100.6 billion by 2021.
The report points out that closed-loop gift cards continue to be popular for retailers and their customers  and indicates that the closed-loop gift card market has opportunities to continue to grow as retailers learn new ways to make use of their branded currencies in omnichannel commerce.
One example of an innovation provided by GCI: an iPhone-delivered virtual birthday cake with virtually burning candles. Glass explains: “We’ve created an algorithm that converts the decibel level recorded at the microphone to the equivalent of wind speed. So you literally get to blow out the birthday candles by blowing into the phone’s mic.”
Once the giftee finishes blowing out the virtual candles, a personalized micro gift is delivered, in the form of a drink, an appetizer, or movie tickets, Glass says.
This example of extreme personalization has another benefit: fraud reduction, according to the CEO.
“A highly personalized transaction that gets delivered with some of [GCI’s] haptic capabilities has virtually no fraud compared to just the delivery of a gift card code today.”
GCI customized gift cards are delivered via the Gift Tokens app, which Glass calls a “white-label solution” and which offers another innovation: no more rectangular cards. “We make them round,” says Glass, which consumers will notice over the card’s denomination. And Glass as mentioned earlier, GCI cards are expanding beyond the days of the traditional $25 or $50 gift card: “It’s a cup of coffee, or two movie tickets, or a milkshake. Those types of marketing techniques still functi...