What is ezGIFT™?
ezGIFT™ is a digital gifting platform that empowers marketing teams and enables guests to select a gift of their choice.
How does ezGIFT work?
ezGIFT programs are created by GPS alongside their casino partner. We work hand in hand with the casino to offer a variety of program options and gift choices the casino can market to guests.
Once the casino selects the products the casino has the option to push the store live right away or wait until it is closer to an event. Early publishing can create excitement to drive play and waiting can create a feeling of exclusivity and secrecy to drive interest. On launch day, guests are given vouchers with unique redemption codes. They visit the branded ezGIFT site from a personal device such as a cell phone or the casino can set tablet up nearby. After verifying eligibility and distributing codes, guests review the gifts and begin the redemption process.
Guests must visit the casino to get their coded vouchers and other prerequisites can be leveraged as well. This promotion often replaces the standard gift pickup in a traditional gift giveaway program but can also be additive to the current promotional programming. Once guests choose their gift option, ezGIFT processes all the orders and ships each gift. The gifts can be sent directly to the casino or to a guest’s house. It’s up to the marketing team to determine what makes the most sense for their guests. Do you ship gifts to the casino, creating a second trip? Do you ship to guests’ houses to make gift redemption easier than ever before? The answer…well, it depends.
The case for shipping to the casino
Trips, visits, excursions – whatever you may call it, shipping ezGIFT redemptions back to your casino will add an incremental one. Shipping gifts to the casino has been known to take a typical gift continuity and double its profitability, as every qualified guest makes a second trip.
You may be worried guests will get irritated about visiting for a gift redemption day and receiving nothing but a voucher. Rest assured that in real-life applications, this does not happen. Instead, guests are so intrigued by the option to choose their gift that they tend to be more attentive to the gift giveaway process. The time between the first and second trip is an excitement builder, as guests cannot wait to see and touch the gift they chose weeks earlier.
It’s recommended the casino utilize an event space for the redemption area. This allows guests additional time to choose gifts, reducing the pressure that may build if a line is forming around the promotion booth. To further enhance the experience, we recommend setting up product samples in advance of redemption day to drive guest excitement for voucher pick-up day, which streamlines the selection of their preferred gift. Various casinos have elected to make ezGIFT redemption day into a full-blown party with food, drinks, and entertainment, giving guests a unique experience that isn’t typical with a traditional gift giveaway.
A casino in Oklahoma implemented an ezGIFT program for 1,000 of its most valued guests. They generated an exciting atmosphere for the first visit by throwing a party as guests received their code vouchers. Guests used their vouchers to redeem gifts on the ezGIFT site. The products were shipped to the casino, and weeks later, guests picked up gifts on the second date set by the casino.
Of the 1,000 gifts redeemed on the first visit, only 3 were not picked up on the second visit day. This was a 99.7% gift pickup rate, showing that guests are likely to make the second visit when they are confident in the gift waiting for them.
The case for shipping directly to homes
It’s commonly thought shipping directly to homes is strictly for the guest’s benefit, but there are benefits to the properties as well. Having guests redeem their gift and shipping it to their homes creates a sense of excitement and anticipation, making the moment they see it on their doorstep a second marketing moment. Making a guest’s life easier is a strong argument to the one-visit viewpoint, but there are additional benefits to properties that elect to ship directly to guests’ homes.
Soft costs are routinely overlooked, especially when it comes to accounting for the true cost a continuity program. Most casinos don’t have enough storage or labor to run larger programs. Thousands of gifts eat up space in the warehouse, reducing space for other goods while increasing the need for labor to manage the intake and movement of the products. Labor is needed to house the goods, open the boxes, discard the cardboard, distribute the gifts and on occasion the management of returns are silent costs that add to the price of running an on-site gift program. ezGIFT eliminates many of these soft-cost expenses.
The case for select, then pick up event
The two-visit ezGIFT use case resolves many of the core challenges of on-site giveaways but does open the door to some of the on-site distribution costs. Shipping gifts to the casino requires logistics, storage and distribution, albeit less time, and distribution, albeit less time-consuming than a traditional continuity. Casinos often host a redemption event and create a shopping experience out of it. This includes setting up a nice event with food, entertainment and on-site samples of the online gift selections. This is a great way to build deeper host relationships and player loyalty though exclusive invite-only experiences.
If there isn’t budget for an event, this is where the classic ezGIFT events thrive. Guests come on property to pick up their code vouchers and choose their gift on-site with team assistance or later when they get home. All they need to do is add a physical address and wait for it to arrive in the mail.
A bonus of the one-trip ezGIFT program is the opportunity for a phantom second trip. When guests see their chosen gift arrive at their house, they’re reminded of their exciting experience. Once the gift is unboxed at home it remains a constant reminder of the fun they experienced on property. Creating a lasting bond and positive memory increases the likelihood of future return trips.
There are no gifts to store or boxes to unwrap, and your standard promotions staff can handle the voucher distribution. Choose who qualifies for a gift, handout the codes, and the ezGIFT platform handles the rest.
Your partner in implementing ezGIFT
When building an ezGIFT site, GPS is your all-in-one provider of loyalty solutions. We are your code card designers, product-picking consultants, and partners throughout the entire gifting process. Whether you’re looking for a two-visit, entertainment-filled digital gifting program or a reduction in soft costs, contact us today for a demonstration of how ezGIFT can work for you.
