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Table of Contents

Overview

A gift card feature is available within ADM and the Global Market Account system. This feature allows Operators to create a Gift Card record within ADM, and then share that with end consumers. Once a consumer has a Gift Card in their possession, they can use it to make one-time purchases on a device, or they can fund an existing GMA account.

There are numerous use cases around Gift Cards as consumers can utilize them in different ways. However, at the core of Gift Cards is the ability to reward consumers and entice them to use a market. Operators can create and distribute these on their own, or they can take direction from their Clients and meet those specific needs as well.

ADM Setup - Guided Walkthrough

Find our Gift Card tutorial at 365 Retail Markets - eGift Cards ADM, or click the image below to begin the demo.

ADM Setup - Step-By-Step Instructions

Create a Gift Card

To create a Gift Card in ADM, navigate to the Admin dropdown on ADM, and select “Consumer Engagement." Selecting this will take you to the Consumer Engagement landing page. On this page, users will have the ability to Create a new Gift Card, Issue or Print off existing Gift Cards, or view Expired records.

To start creating a new Gift Card, select the “Create Gift Card” button on the page. When selected, the page will expand and reveal a number of fields that must be completed to create the new record. The various settings for Gift Cards are as follows:

Title: The name of the overall Gift Card record. Must be unique within the Org (limit: 52 characters)
Amount: The value of each Gift Card that will be generated from this record. Values must be positive, contain up to 2 decimal places, and be below $999.99 in amount.
Consumer Account: This field cannot be edited at this time and will always remain as “Locked”. Future enhancements will extend this functionality further.
Expiration Date: must be set an expiration date within 12 months of the creation date

Once all of the fields are filled in, select the “Save” button for that Gift Card record. If the Gift Card is successfully created, the page will refresh and the record will be added to the Active tab grid.

Note: At this point, a Gift Card record has been created, but no Gift Cards have individually been generated off of that one record. Users must Issue or Print a number of Gift Cards off of the overall record itself.

Distrubuting Gift Cards

Once a Gift Card record has been created, the operator will see two buttons appear next to the record in the Active grid display. These buttons are Issue and Print.

Selecting Issue will allow the operator to email gift cards to the consumers. Selecting Print will allow the operator to print gift cards for their consumers.

Emailing Gift Cards

After selecting the Issue option in the Active grid display, the page will expand to reveal a new section that will allow the user to email out Gift Cards.

After this step, you can email consumers who have a GMA associated with your location, or you can email consumers who do not have a GMA.

Emailing Gift Cards to Existing GMA Accounts

To email consumers that have GMAs at your location, you will first select Issue next to the record in the Active grid display, then ensure that you are on the By Location tab. This is the first email option available on this page, and it is selected by default.

On this tab, all consumers that have a verified email address on their account and are associated with the Org will be listed in the results grid. Users can filter consumer accounts by using the “Location of Recipients” dropdown, or the search box above the grid.

Once the results have been filtered down to the appropriate Consumers, the operator can use the checkbox in the header column to select All Consumers, or they can select records individually.

Optionally, the operator can enter a message to include to their consumers by adding text in the “Add a Note” field. This Note will be included on the actual Gift Card that the Consumer receives and can be used for additional communication (limit: 60 characters). The Note entered is only for the current Issue action and can be altered before performing another Issue action for the same Gift Card record.

The final step of this process is to press the “Email Cards” button. Once entered, an email will be generated and sent to every selected Consumer’s email address. This email will include one Gift Card record per Consumer and will have an associated unique QR Code that the Consumer will then use on a device. At this point, the Gift Card is NOT associated with the Global Market Account and there is no further tie to that particular Consumer. This method simply distributes Gift Cards but does not tie them to the GMA.

Emailing Gift Cards to Non-GMAs

If your gift card recipients do not have an existing Global Market Account, you will first select the Issue option next to the record in the Active grid display, and then select the By Email tab.

Email Gift Card by Email is the second tab that is available. On this tab, operators can enter or upload a list of email addresses of individuals who need to receive a Gift Card record.

Optionally, the User can enter a message to include on this issuing of the Gift Cards by typing in text in the “Add a Note” field. This Note will be included on the actual Gift Card that the user receives and can be used for additional communication (limit: 60 characters). The Note entered is only for the current Issue action and can be altered before performing another Issue action for the same Gift Card record.

Next, the User can choose either the “Enter Recipient Email” option or the “Bulk Email Consumers” option. The Enter Recipient Email path allows the User to manually enter email addresses in a comma-separated format, and this is best used when there are limited recipients. The Bulk Email Consumer path allows the User to enter email addresses into an Excel file, and then upload that file to ADM. This option is best used when there are large numbers of recipients.

Printing Gift Cards

After selecting the Print option in the Active grid display, the page will expand to reveal a new section that will allow the user to print out Gift Card records.

The first field to fill in is “Cards to Print”. This field determines the number of individual Gift Cards that will be generated against the particular record. Values entered must be whole integers between 0 and 100. For example, if “50” is entered into this field, then 50 unique QR Codes associated with that Gift Card record will be generated.

The final step of this process is to select the “Print” button. Once selected, the user will receive an email that has a PDF of the Gift Card records attached. This PDF will include the number of specified Gift Cards to print, and can then be printed out on a physical medium to be distributed to consumers.

Check Active/Expired Status of Gift Card

Within the Gift Card section on the Consumer Engagement page, there are tabs for “Active” and “Expired”. The Active tab will show results for all Gift Cards that are currently active within that Org, while the Expired tab will show all Gift Cards that were generated but have since expired.

On the Active tab, there is a grid that lists each individual Gift Card record. This grid has the following columns:

Title: The name of the overall Gift Card record. Must be unique within the Org.
Amount: The value of each Gift Card that will be generated from this record.
Expires: The date on which that Gift Card will expire, if applicable.
Issued: The total number of individual Gift Card records that have been generated off of that particular record. This value will update as cards are Issued or Printed.

On the Expired tab, there is a grid that lists each individual Gift Card record. This grid has the following columns:

Title: The name of the overall Gift Card record. Must be unique within the Org.
Amount: The value of each Gift Card that was generated from this record.
Expired: The date on which that Gift Card expired.
# Cards Issued: The total number of individual Gift Card records that were generated off of that particular record.

Consumer Experience

A consumer can receive a Gift Card either via their email or by being handed a physical record. This Gift Card will have an associated QR Code that the consumer will use to “redeem” the value on that card. The Gift Card can be used on any GMA-enabled device in the 365 ecosystem, given that the device is online for the first use. Gift Cards obtain their global nature by leveraging the GMA infrastructure, and will be expanded to allow for further future capabilities.

Consumers can utilize a Gift Card by either adding the funds to an existing Global Market Account or by making one-time purchases at a device. This flexibility allows consumers to use the Gift Card in a manner that is most conducive to their interactions with the devices.

Guided Walkthrough - How to Use Your Gift Card at the Kiosk

Find our customer experience Gift Card tutorial at 365 Retail Markets - V5 eGift Cards Consumer Journey, or click the image below to begin the demo.

Funding an Account

Funding an Account is the first way in which a consumer can use a Gift Card. To do this, a consumer can log in to their account on any kiosk or on their associated app platform. On the Manage Account pages of the various devices, consumers will see a new option to fund their account via Gift Card. When selected, this option will prompt the consumer to scan their Gift Card on the device.

If the Gift Card is still active, any remaining funds will be added to the “Consumer Account” balance on their account. For example, if a consumer has a $10 Gift Card and they fund their account, the balance will essentially be transferred from the Gift Card to an existing GMA balance. In this scenario, the Gift Card will be depleted of all funds and will no longer have any associated value.

At this point, the funds will be added to any existing balance and will be combined into the single Consumer Account bucket. Consumers will then be able to spend these funds on their account just as if they had added funds via Cash or Credit.

If the Gift Card is expired, the consumer will not be able to transfer any funds. At this point, the Gift Card will no longer have any associated value and will not be usable by the consumer.

One-Time Purchases

One-Time Purchases are the second way in which a consumer can use a Gift Card. A consumer does not need a Global Market Account to use a Gift Card at a device, as they can simply scan the associated QR Code directly from the cart screen to checkout.

To use a Gift Card to complete a sale transaction on a device, a consumer can take the following steps:

Add items to their cart
From the cart screen, scan the Gift Card QR Code
If the Gift Card is Active and has a sufficient balance
The device will automatically complete the transaction
The receipt option screen will appear

A consumer can use a Gift Card on multiple transactions, up until the point that it no longer has a sufficient balance to complete the sale. This means the consumer can use a Gift Card over as many individual transactions until the balance has been depleted.

A Gift Card does not need a completely sufficient balance to finalize a transaction. If the Gift Card does not have enough value to complete the sale, the Gift Card balance will be applied to the amount due, and then a credit card can be used to pay for the remaining balance. This will allow consumers to use up the entire value of the Gift Card while completing a transaction.

Reporting

As part of the Gift Card project, we have updated existing reports and created new reports in ADM to help Operators better understand the usage. These reports will detail when Gift Cards are created, when they are used, and how consumers use them.

There are two reports related to Gift Cards, those reports being:

Gift Card Creation: This report will detail every time that a Gift Card has records Issued or Printed. This will help Operators to know how many Gift Cards have been generated to understand any potential liabilities and reconcile any Gift Card fees.
Gift Card Usage: This report will detail every time that a Gift Card record is utilized by consumers, whether for one-time transactions or for the funding of a GMA. This will help Operators to know how and when consumers are redeeming Gift Cards and how to reconcile any credits.

There will be updates to existing reports in ADM to account for the addition of Gift Cards. The various updates will be as follows:

EFT: GMA Disbursement: This report will have a new “Less eGift Card” column added. This will reduce the amount disbursed to Operators, based on the number and value of Issued/Printed Gift Cards.
Account Funding Summary: This report will have a new “Gift Card” column added to it. This will show the total amount of funds added to GMA via Gift Cards.
Account Funding Detail: This report will have a new “Gift Card” value added in the existing “Method” column. This will detail out when a consumer uses a Gift Card to fund their GMA.
Payment Method Handling: Reports that have a version of payment methods will be updated to show a new “Gift Card” value. For example, the Sold Details report will show a Method of Gift Card, if a consumer has used one to complete a one-time transaction.

Financials

The easiest way to understand the financial component of Gift Cards is to view them as Global Market Accounts. This means that, as soon as the Gift Cards are created on ADM, there will be an associated fee on the EFT Disbursement. Additionally, as sales are made, there will be a credit.

When a Gift Card record is initially set up within ADM, there will be no associated flow of funds. When a Gift Card record is either Issued or Printed, the full value of the generated cards will be removed from the next EFT Disbursement for the associated Org. For example, if 10 Gift Cards with a $10 value each are Issued from ADM, the next EFT Disbursement will be reduced by $100. The EFT report will have a new “Less eGift Card” column that will be used to track these generated cards.

When consumers fund their Global Market Account with a Gift Card, there will also be no flow of funds. At this point, the consumer has simply “transferred” a balance from the Gift Card record to their GMA.

As consumers redeem their Gift Card funds on sale transactions, those amounts will be included in the “GMA Sales” column on the EFT Disbursement as a credit back to the Operator. This will occur for both one-time transactions and as consumers redeem the added funds from their GMA. For example, if $50 of Gift Card sales occur during a disbursement period, the GMA Sales value will be increased by that $50 amount as a credit.