CardTailor Beefs Up Gift Card Personalization January 21, 2010
By Donna M. Airoldi
Canadian loyalty and stored-value firm Ernex has unveiled a new technology that will allow gift card buyers to easily customize individual award cards.
DimpleDough, a Independence, OH–based company specializing in card customization and delivery applications and services, has announced a strategic partnership with Moneris Solutions, a provider of payment processing services in Canada, through its gift and loyalty division Ernex, allowing Moneris to resell DimpleDough's online card customization solutions.
Ernex also has developed a new turnkey service using DimpleDough’s technology, called CardTailor, which enables retailers to offer sales of standard and personalized gift cards to their customers through the web more simply and cost effectively.
“Canadian retailers are seeking ways to make their gift and loyalty card programs more exciting and relevant to their customers,” says Malcolm Fowler, SVP and general manager of Vancouver–based Ernex. “The growth of gift cards in particular has been fueled by a desire to gift something more personal than cash—adding the capability to personalize a card with an image and a message makes cards even more desirable. Through this partnership we will be making that happen quickly and profitably for merchants.”
CardTailor enables buyers to purchase standard or personalized gift cards through a secure update to a merchant’s website. It supports cards from any gift card provider and enables merchants to monitor their online gift card sales through the CardTailor Web Dashboard. Reports provide insight to the statistics needed to assist in improving sales performance. CardTailor uses Moneris Solutions’ established in-house fulfillment facilities to ensure customers will receive their gift cards securely and on-time.
Costs for companies using the program include “a modest set-up fee to create a Web-commerce site presenting their card templates for personalization, branded to complement their business,” says Malcolm Fowler, Ernex SVP. “A small monthly hosting fee applies to maintain the commerce site. The fully packaged solution, which includes managing the acceptance of payment, card creation, printing and fulfillment is charged on a usage basis—in many cases the consumer pays a fee for personalization, shipping and handling that covers a large portion of the costs, similar to the cost of buying a greeting card and mailing it.”
For now, the CardTailor service is available in Canada only; DimpleDough technology is more broadly available. For more information, visit www.cardtailor.com or www.dimpledough.com .
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