Gift card programs are not just great marketing and revenue generation tools; they are great for data mining as well. The gift card analytics your company collects from a gift card program can help you track the effectiveness of marketing efforts, spot new sales trends, analyze customer buying habits, and even predict changes in consumer spending patterns.

Unfortunately, there is a wide disconnect between many small businesses and the data they collect. There is a cornucopia of actionable information and valuable insight just beneath the surface — the trick is knowing what to look for and leveraging this data to one’s advantage.

If this is the first time you’re reading about gift card analytics, these are the 5 benefits you’ve been missing out on:

Customer Profiling.  Gift card programs can help you build detailed customer profiles. This usually includes basic demographics and behavior data that enable you to understand your customer better.  Customer profiles offer you insight into your buyers’ preferences and needs placing your business in the best position to fulfil them before the competition does.

Detailed customer profiles are crucial because the information offers you understanding into what products and offers are relevant to customers. It is also useful in determining how customers make a purchasing decision, and understanding what their reasons are for doing so. This critical analytic enables you to better target and engage your current customers, as well as prospects, in developing an enduring, mutually beneficial business relationship.

Cross Selling.  Businesses require better customer insight to improve their ability to optimize offers and cross sell appropriate products. This is where gift card analytics come in handy. Most gift card programs are tied to the point-of-sale system, allowing businesses like yours to generate detailed reports about how often your gift cards are redeemed and for which products.

Valuable gift card analytics likewise provide business owners or managers like you a detailed picture of the customer’s spending habits, transaction history, and overall behavior. Using this data, you can cross-sell appropriate products that actually appeal to customers, bringing two-fold benefits for your business because you are boosting sales while building lasting relationships at the same time.

Streamlining Marketing Efforts.The ability to prioritize leads is another benefit of gift card analytics.

With in-depth analysis of customer information, marketing budget and efforts can be targeted on the ones who are likely to buy. This saves your company valuable marketing dollars that can be reallocated to other expenses.

Creating New Opportunities. The analytics you collect from gift card programs do not only reveal useful information about your customers. It also uncovers valuable information about your own business. With new information gathered from your gift card transactions, you can plan, budget, reallocate and forecast resources based on shopping trends. Know which merchandise is moving fast and which ones are gathering dust, and respond accordingly. When you can find promising trends and atypical patterns hidden deep within the gift card program analytics, your company can make the most cost-effective decisions.

Predictive Analytics. In today’s competitive business environment, merchants are turning to new tools like predictive analytics to identify and respond to new opportunities more quickly. But big data analytics solutions can be expensive. This is where data from your own program can be useful. Used the right way, the data you collect can be invaluable in formulating all sorts of strategies and business decisions, and in some cases, mitigate risk and identify fraud.

As trends change and consumers become more discerning, it’s imperative for business owners and managers like you to understand your customers’ needs. And that little piece of plastic card with your logo could be the key.