Allstate Printing & Graphics

Thousands of companies from restaurants to hardware stores offer personalized cards. With that influx have come diversified business models – such as virtual cards – that increase potential for revenue and customer retention. How has this personalization affected the gift card market? .

When Starbucks launched its customizable gift card program in 2007, it forever changed the prepaid giving market. The coffee company’s cards weren’t the first from a brick-and-mortar business that consumers could design and personalize with inscriptions on the Internet, but the program did set off enormous demand among other retailers. Now thousands of companies from restaurants to hardware stores offer personalized cards. With that influx have come diversified business models – such as virtual cards – that increase potential for revenue and customer retention.