Phone Card Printing Services, No longer Profitable.
For the next few years phone cards continue to prosper. By 1998 most major telecommunication companies had released their own brand of phone cards. Cards were no longer using the magstripe and had completely switched over to an access number and PIN.
Like the dot com boom, the phone card market exploded. Industry-wide revenues reached 12 million dollars. While sales for future years were expected to double. Just one year later in 1999 calling card sales reached an unpredicted high of 25 million dollars. Sales continued to grow reaching 650 million dollars by 2004. Between 2005 and 2008 sales continued to rise exponentially soaring over 4 billion dollars.
Now in days with pre-paid mobile phones and internet service providers users no longer are in need of prepaid phone cards, production of phone cards went down considerably, phone card manufacturers are changing their core business for a more attractive card product like plastic cards
Gift card sales booming during the holidays
Most shoppers will buy at least one
Finding nearly endless choices, consumers are embracing
the idea of gift cards, making the presents people will receive this holiday
season just as likely to come in an envelope as in a box.
Gift cards continue to top lists of most popular
purchases this season, spurring billions in sales for merchants. The category
is growing quickly and moving toward a day when, some believe, the plastic cards could be replaced by electronic ones.
Cards that can be used to buy at stores, restaurants, gas
stations, spas, movie theaters and other outlets have become big business, with
purchases expected to reach $138 billion in the United States this year,
according to estimates from CEB Tower Group. That's a 10 percent jump over gift
card spending in 2014, and Tower Group analysts expect similar growth through
2020, when sales are expected to leap to $178 billion.
More than four in five shoppers — 81 percent — plan to
buy at least one gift card this season and spend, on average, $156.86 for
cards, a survey by the National Retail Federation showed.
That per-person average spending is the highest in the
survey's 10-year history, with total holiday gift card spending expected to
amount to $39 billion. Nearly 60 percent of those polled in the NRF survey said
they'd like to get gift cards this year, a slight increase from 2014.
How Plastic Cards Help Companies Hold Loyal Customers
The competition
in the market amongst various companies has taken the market to the next level.
Every day people get to experience a new change in the market. The companies
just to sustain their place in the market and provide better services to their
loyal customers do this change. There are many alternatives for every product
or service available in the market that the customers get great variety to
choose their service provider. In this race of earning loyal customers,
companies are trying various techniques to keep their clients interested in
their services. It is very difficult for a company to hold loyal customers as
they cannot afford to do a single mistake or it may cause them hugely. This is
what forces companies offer different sorts of presents to their customers. Gift
cards are the most commonly used instruments by the companies to impress their
audiences. If you are in search of gift card printing services then it is recommended that you browse online.
Loyalty cards
are also offered by some companies to their customers. There are plenty of
reasons why companies provide these compliments to their customers. One of the
most important reasons is that it makes easier for the companies to recognize
or identify their loyal customers. Through these cards companies give reward
points to their customers which benefits the customers in their future transactions
with the company. Such benefits interest the customers and their loyalty last
for longer period. If you are in search of membership & loyalty card printing services for your company then you need to find a reliable
printing service provider.
There are many
such printing service providers available in both local as well as Internet
market. It is recommended that do not fall prey for cheap printing services
that are available in the local market as those services may work against your
company’s reputation. The printing that is done in the local market is of low
quality and one cannot let these things affect their business or it may cause
them hugely. Online you will come across many company websites that are into
printing cards for business purposes. These service providers cater good
quality services at very affordable prices, as they understand the importance
of the business reputation.
Plastic cards
have a great impact on all types of business. Packaging the product in an
attractive manner always benefits the company as it catches the eyes of your
intended audiences and influences them to purchase the product. Online plastic card printing service providers
also print product packaging for you just to enhance the overall output of your
company’s products. Even in the troubled, economic times, gift cards and
loyalty cards prove to be helpful for the companies. With the advent in technology,
those cards are very easy to be manufactured and do not cost a lot as one would
anticipate it to be. It just needs an effective marketing strategy to attract
your customers and join up your program. For any queries and assistance, you
can call on the number that is mentioned on the service provider’s website.
Plastic Card Printing – Easy Way To Promote a Business.
There are many providers that offer these services. You can also opt for card personalization. All you have to do is to choose the card type, quantity,
type of material, and more. The prices of these services are affordable and can
easily fit into your budget. It is worth to take a quick tour to the website to
get an overview of the services.
Tooling Decisions for Gift Card Die Cutting.
Gift card manufacturers need to be equally versed in the different types of tooling used in die cutting gift cards..
Steel rule dies have the advantages of being relatively inexpensive and easy to obtain quickly. A steel rule die generally costs 95% less than a standard blanking tool. Gap presses that have better optical registration can automatically re-position steel rule dies. They also offer rapid job changeovers that are important to the short run niche. All of the features used in gift card designs to date-hole punches, score lines, perimeter cuts-can be made, but with far lower mechanical accuracy than would be possible with other types of tooling. This is due to the tendency of cutting blades to bend or deflect while cutting. Card manufacturers familiar with the financial card industry usually have little experience with steel rule dies as they are not up to the rigors of strict ISO standards for CR-80 dimension cards. However, steel rule dies are often the tooling of choice for less demanding gift card designs and mastering their manufacture and use is an important part of being competitive in the gift card manufacturing niche.
Male/female hard tooling can easily create gift cards that do not have internal features such as score lines or internal holes that are common in gift card designs. With these tools, the key technical consideration is the clearance between the punch and die and how far it penetrates into the die cavity. When cutting the thick materials typically used in gift cards (e.g. 0.76 mm plastics), there is a need for considerable clearance between the punch and the die. In most cases, the punch should be smaller than the die cavity hole diameter by as much as I/I0 the plastic material thickness. This general rule nearly always needs fine tuning and the more experienced die cutting equipment manufacturers will make adjustments in tooling design as a matter of course.
Progressive dies are essentially two or more tools built side-by-side that create all the cuts, internal holes, score lines, and perforations used in gift card designs in multiple sequential cutting stations. Here, too, the knowledge base of the gift card manufacturer is important, especially when it comes to considering tool progression (center-to-center spacing between two stations in a tool). Progressive tools must be very accurately built to match the step up, and artwork must be similarly matched to this dimension in the printing. Progressive dies cost about 50% more than ordinary male/female hard tools. Progressive dies can be troublesome in that printing must precisely match tool dimension, or station-to-station positioning will be off, and quality will be compromised. If there are cut-to-print registration problems, a progressive die will multiply the rejects. They are also inherently slower, because they involve cycling through multiple stations. For these reasons, compound dies have come into use.
Compound dies are essentially two or more tools built inside each other such that the gift card (including all its internal features and the die cut features of carrier for point-of-sale displays) can be created in one press stroke. This type of die has unsurpassed mechanical accuracy in a fast single step process. But one pays for this accuracy and throughput-generally at a 15% greater cost of a standard male/female die. They also are return-to-web dies, like steel rule dies, and those gift card manufacturers that have equipment with greater versatility in parts extraction and knockout systems have a distinct advantage.
Modular dies have been newly created to meet the need to produce high quality prototypes in competitive bid situations, and to find tooling for moderate run lengths for gift card products. These moderately – priced dies create the same edge quality produced by hard tooling, but at approximately 1/5 the upfront cost of hard tools and obtained in as little as 1/8 the time it takes to procure hard tooling up to the requirements of many gift card designs. These are often the tooling of choice for many gift card jobs with runs less than 500,000 die cutting cycles.
Gift Card Printing and Its Benefits.
The
professional printing service has gained immense popularity. It enables them to
meet the requirements with the proper advertising tools. This has proven to be
economical and effective solutions for the business. A reliable service
provider with the use of advance machines and techniques will deliver top class
plastic card printing service to the
client. They can easily cater the needs of the various industries with ease.
Plastic card is extensively used in the hospitality, telecom, retail, banking,
travel industry and more. The service provider will offer wide range plastic
products to the customers. They can make their choice based on their niche
industry and requirements. A gift card is used in the various promotional
activities to encourage customers in the buying process. There are different
types of gift card that can be incorporated in the marketing strategy. It can
help to build a better connection with the customer on distributing the gift
card. The printing service provider will design the gift card in proficient manner.
It will be graphically well designed to give it an attractive appearance. One
can get the business logo and name incorporated on the gift card. People can
make their decision on the thickness and finishing touch with the gift card printing service.
With the card personalization service, it can
aid in giving a unique feel and make it special. The retailers can distribute
the gift card during the festive season to increase the business sales. It will
assist in building a good reputation with this marketing strategy. Membership Card Printing For Enhanced Service Delivery.
The two main
factors that help a business flourish and expand are customer satisfaction and
stellar services or products. Changing market trends also impact the consumption
rate of customers. This is when business entrepreneurs must introduce timely
changes and offer products that their customers desire to purchase. Capturing
the attention of existing customers is essential as the market offers fierce
competition and a little slip can negatively impact the business of an
entrepreneur. Manually gathering the buying trends of customers can be a
daunting and time consuming activity. With the use of technology and the ease
of use offered by membership card printing, retailers and entrepreneurs can easily know the preference of
customers.
Gathering this
information is easy as these cards have a magnetic strip that will record all
the items or products purchased by customers. Using this data, they can easily
know about the most preferred and least preferred products that are displayed
in different retail stores. Such valuable data can help a company drastically
improve its image in the market by introducing better versions of the less
preferred products. These measures will not only help garner a larger clientele
but will create a good reputation among contemporaries. It would reflect
positively on the company, improve business prospects and be viewed as a
customer-centric promotional activity. Another way of promoting the brand is to
opt for SIM card printing which will
make a large number of mobile users aware of your products. This too can be
customized as per your preferences and using card affixing packaging can be utilized to enhance the overall
presentation, contact us to get an answer to any of your membership card printing questions.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
