We recently ran the National (US) Frozen Yogurt Consumer Survey and offered survey respondents a chance to win frozen yogurt gift cards. This was the second year that we offered this type of prize as an incentive for frozen yogurt fans to participate in our survey. Winners were allowed to choose a gift card to the frozen yogurt shop of their choice.
To our surprise, we noticed that very few frozen yogurt shops sell gift cards online or egifts. In addition, some large frozen yogurt chains don’t even sell gift cards online. So, we were unable to buy the gift cards for shops that the winners requested.
We think that it should be easier to buy frozen yogurt gift cards online. Why? First, more people are buying online than ever before. By offering online gift cards, busy people and those who don’t live close to your shop can still make gift card purchases.
Out of curiosity, we looked into the gift card programs of the largest frozen yogurt chains in the US.
Existing Gift Card Programs of Large Frozen Yogurt Chains
- Menchie’s: Gift cards can be purchased online but a physical gift card needs to be mailed. The gift card value starts at $5 and goes up to $200 in $5 increments. There is also a fee of $1.95 – $3.95 depending on delivery method. They use QuickGifts as their gift card solution vendor.
- Orange Leaf: Gift cards can be ordered from the Orange Leaf website. Cards are shipped for a fee of $1.50 to a physical address. Gift card amounts are limited to $5, $10, $25 or $50. The site doesn’t let you order more than one card at a time, which is pretty limiting. Gift card holders can check their balance on the Orange Leaf website.
- Pinkberry: Pinkberry had the best gift card program, in terms of making it easy for someone to buy a gift card, physical or digital. You can order a customizable egift or have a physical gift card mailed using the Pinkberry website or the Pinkberry app and choose any value between $5-$50. Cards can be registered for an added measure of security. And, you can check the gift card value on the Pinkberry website or app.
- Red Mango: Red Mango’s gift card program is similar to Pinkberry’s, without the integration with the Red Mango app. A visitor to Redmangousa.com can order a customizable egift or have a gift card mailed and choose any value between $5 to $50. The egift can be sent via a Facebook post or email. The egift can be redeemed by using a unique 10 digit number that the gift recipient receives.
- sweetFrog: sweetFrog had the worst gift card program of all the chains that offer online gift cards. While you can buy a $10, $20, or $30 gift card from the sweetFrog website, the list of participating locations leaves out most of their locations. Physical gift cards are shipped to the recipient.
- TCBY: TCBY gift cards are sold in stores only. Really?
- Tutti Frutti: Their website doesn’t even mention gift cards.
- Yogen Fruz: Gift cards are not mentioned on the website. This is surprising.
- Yogurtland: The Yogurtland website offers a choice of purchasing an egift (with a value of $5-$100) or mailing a gift card. You can also register your gift card on the website or using the Real Rewards app.
The Appeal of Gift Cards
Gift cards are great when you’re not sure what to give someone. Another benefit of gift cards is their ability to bring in new customers who haven’t purchased from your business yet. According to Packaged Facts, US consumers spent $46 billion on gift cards in 2016. Gift cards are clearly a huge business. For over a decade, gift cards have been #1 on the holiday gift wish list (NRF Holiday 2017 Recap). Restaurant gift cards are the most popular, followed by department store gift cards.
Not all gift cards are redeemed, so when you sell a gift card, you’re getting someone to prepay when some will never redeem the full value of the card. According to advisory company CEB TowerGroup, consumers spent more than $130 billion on gift cards per year, and roughly $1 billion went unspent.
Egifting On the Rise
Physical gift cards are still the most common type of gift card giving. However, egifts are rising in popularity because of their convenience. Egifts make it easy to give a last minute gift because it just takes a few minutes to buy and send them. They also can’t get lost in the mail.
Most people would like to receive an egift. According to a consumer survey by CardCash, “53% said they would be interested in storing gift cards on their phones.” They also shared that 60% of gift cards that are sold on the CardCash website are digital e-gift cards. A Blackhawk Networks survey published in 2016 found that “Nearly half of consumers surveyed (42%) have purchased egifts for both gifts and self-use.” Egifts are favored by younger consumers.
Types of Gift Card Programs
If you’d like to learn more, this article from giftcards.com weighs the pros and cons of five types of gift card programs.
For frozen yogurt shops, the choice boils down to a closed loop program from a merchant bank and a closed loop program from a gift card vendor. The gift card vendor offers more options, but at a cost. We will have more information about closed loop programs from gift card vendors soon.
If you’ve had a good or bad experience with a gift card vendor, we’d love to hear about it.