There’s a ‘golden season’ for luxury hotels’ gift voucher sales – no prizes for guessing that it is, of course, the festive period.
This time covers the two BIG shopping dates of Christmas and Black Friday and on average half of a property’s annual revenue is generated in November and December. It’s no wonder that our clients really focus on gift vouchers during this time, planning campaigns and activities to take advantage of the increased customer spend. And to be fair, we really focus on this period too.
In addition to this, there is also a lot of emphasis and planning around the key gifting dates of Valentine’s, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. And we definitely see sales spike on the lead up to and on these dates.
But – what if you could go further than this and gift sales could thrive every month?
People celebrate good times every day!
Celebratory gifts
If we look at ‘reason for purchase’ stats (one of the questions asked in all our gift site checkouts, giving us amazing data), celebration gifts are the most popular gift types – think birthday, thank you and retirement gifts, to name a few.
Whilst other gifting dates work towards one peak day, these occasions are celebrated throughout the year, accounting for around 60% of yearly sales.
Birthdays
Let’s look at the biggest first..
‘Birthday’ is the TOP reason for purchase representing nearly 40% of all sales throughout the year.
They of course fall every single day.
It’s worth noting that some months are more popular than others: September and October are the most popular birth months and 26 September is the most common birth date of the year (sure you can work out why).
One thing we’ve noticed is milestone birthdays that end in a ‘0’ i.e. 30, 40, 50, 60, etc. are particularly popular when it comes to gifting luxury hotel gift experiences, such as beautiful overnight stays, unique dining and relaxing and rejuvenating spa experiences.
To help capture this market, we’d recommend running a dedicated ‘seasonal’ birthday gifts campaign say around once a quarter. This can be reflected on your gift shop too, with a relevant image, copy and call-to-action button on a slider carousel (this is great for your SEO too – Google loves new content).
In addition to this, include a ‘birthday gifting’ link / block in every promotional email sent to email subscribers. In between times, create content on social media at least once a month, as well as running paid ads, to help create awareness and interest in your gifts as unique birthday gifts.
Other celebratory events
These play a big part in optimising gift sales all year long. Let’s tune into a few of the most popular reasons which can be added to your property’s sales & marketing plan
Engagements
40% of all engagements happen between the last week in November and Valentine’s Day.
Weddings
May – October are the most popular gifting months. Wedding gifts have the highest average spend!
Anniversaries
Lots of creative opportunities with each anniversary having a different traditional meaning & gift.
Graduation
With the rise in experiential gifts, we have seen a rise in congratulatory vouchers to loved ones.
New parents
Gifts for new parents, including those for expectant mums, are growing in popularity.
Thank you & bye!
Thank you, leaving and retirement combined account for nearly 10% of annual sales.
Voucher offers
Voucher offers / exclusive offers can create a lot of excitement and interest, helping boost your gift sales when you want and need it, whilst also ensuring that you don’t displace higher value business.
A ‘flash’ sale, as they are sometimes known involves applying a discount or adding extra value to a gift voucher for a very limited time, for a limited number of gift vouchers and possibly during a limited redemption period, enticing customers to buy straight away and not miss out.
They can increase customer loyalty, attract new customers, boost cashflow AND help improve occupancy at a time that suits your business needs, i.e. quieter days and times.
We have seen many clients running successful offers that work for their customers (the one buying the experience and the recipient) and their business.
These are often created for Black Friday, but there is no need to wait till then. We’ve seen many clients running them for different reasons, such as their birthday or another celebration.
Remember
Remember – someone, somewhere will always be looking for a memorable gift that helps mark and elevate a celebration. And your marketing can generously help them find what they are looking for.
We recommend that gift vouchers are included in a hotel’s overall sales and marketing strategy throughout the year – it’s one the cornerstone elements of successful selling. And we urge our clients to allocate marketing resource to capitalise on more celebratory gifting opportunities outside of the festive period. This also has the added benefit of being less competitive in terms of paid ads too.
There’s lots of advice out there when it comes to gift vouchers. But here’s the good news – we know what really matters to help your sales thrive all year long.
