“Custom Gift Cards – The Presto Gift”

Giving a gift is a human tradition which has existed ever since the dawn of civilization. Emperors and Kings in the bygone eras used to gift land as well as wealth in the form of prevalent currencies such as silver and gold pieces, or in kind, such as in the form of commodities, clothes, houses and livestock fit for human consumption. Gifts are usually bestowed upon close family members, relatives and friends. With the discovery and advent of money, the onus shifted towards giving sums of money as a gift. The tradition carried on and specific events and festivals became the occasions for giving gifts. Apart from what one earns, a gift is especially cherished and enjoyed both by the giver as well as the recipient. It increases the bonding between the two and memories of a gift linger throughout one’s life. Discovery of paper and the resultant paper money in various denominations and currencies remained the rage during the past century, where paltry sums to huge amounts were distributed and received as gifts. With paper money, a person could buy anything that suited his or her fancy from the market, glowing with the inner satisfaction and indebtedness to the person who has given the gift.
Selection and decision for a gift is one of the most engrossing and speculative task for a person intending to gift someone. A gift has to be appropriate for an occasion, a person’s age, sex or affinity towards particular and myriad variety of objects available commercially nowadays.
With the advent of the electronic era and the discovery of plastic money in the form of credit cards, giving credit cards to one’s immediate dependents became the rage in the countries which had this technology. Such plastic currency has infiltrated most of the world now and credit and debit cards are the usual mode of financial transaction, both at brick and mortar commercial establishments, as well as for shopping online. It was not before some enterprising individuals discovered and conceived the concept of Custom gift cards, which could be designed and loaded with an appropriate sum of money depending upon the amount one desired to gift to someone near and dear. The practice of giving paper based gift cards or certificates had already been established by many banks and commercial organizations, in which such gift cards, certificates, or traveler’s checks could be redeemed for specific amounts at various shopping establishments. Elaborate designs and customizations could be ordered by anyone intending to gift some amount of money to anyone. Instead of the insipid check, such cards held aesthetic value and were well appreciated in society. Employing technology to develop custom gift cards in the form of plastic money resembling credit cards followed soon after. The first instance was that of the ‘Blockbuster Entertainment’ Company, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA, who pioneered this business in 1994. Their enterprising effort was an attempt to curb counterfeiting of paper based cards, which could easily be photocopied and misused on multiple occasions, resulting in financial loss to the issuing organization. Plastic gift cards could be made in various hues and designs depending upon the clientele, and could be loaded once or on multiple occasions depending upon the primary business activity of a company and the requirements of the target consumer population. Moreover, magnetic strips and barcodes prevent their misuse.
Custom Gift Cards have now become the mainstay of many organizations, particularly the Coffee giants, "Starbucks" and "Dunkin’ Donuts", the two companies offering a great variety of gift cards for their loyal customers’. Both companies provide opportunities for creating individualized cards according to one’ whims and fancies and their cards can be redeemed anywhere on their chain of outlets. This not only serves as an incentive to the customer, but also increases sales as customers usually spend more than what is actually on the cards, resulting in increases business for such companies which market items of daily usage. Banking institutions and financial giants like the American Express, VISA and MasterCard also offer gift cards with a great versatility of design and loading facilities which can be individualized offering exclusive designs for promoting company business as well as for individual customers. With the growing internet based shops like eBay, Amazon, Sears and others, market for such gift cards has exploded into big business. A customer can build and gift a customized gift card within a matter of minutes using the internet. In fact websites have mushroomed over the internet which offers the freedom and choice of building customized gift cards for individual customers as well as business organizations on a worldwide scale.
Government banking laws and financial rules have been structured in such a way that such gift cards come with the least encumbrances’, offering choice of freedom for the customer to enjoy endless degree of freedom in terms of validity of such cards and flexibility in the permissible amounts that can be loaded. Issuing institutions have also been regulated and directed with national and regional laws not to charge any unreasonable fee on such cards.
The business of custom gift cards actually picks up during periods of festivities’ and regional celebrations’ such as Christmas during which there is maximum sale of such cards. In addition to taking away the difficulty for the donor’s decision on what could be an ideal gift for a particular recipient, such cards also provide freedom to the beneficiary to spend it like he or she pleases. Some gift cards may be ‘open loop’ i.e. which can be used in multiple establishments just like a credit card, or ‘closed loop’ i.e. which can be redeemed only in specific establishments such as ‘Starbucks’, ‘Dominoes’ or ‘eBay’. The former are offered by credit card companies and banks while the latter can be obtained from the relevant retail chains or their websites.
Further spread of information technology and availability of gadgets like ‘Smartphones’ and ‘Touchpads’ with wifi internet connectivity has opened the market for such gift cards which can now be delivered digitally within a matter of seconds using mobile technology. Customizable gift cards have therefore become an essential part of our daily lives