Home / Markets / Card markets/ Retail & LSD
Loyalty cards and gift cards are widely used in the Large-Scale distribution and Retail distribution: an integral part of the shopping experience, they are a fundamental tool for improving customer loyalty and increasing sales.
The fidelity or loyalty card allows the creation of a points wallet for every euro spent: the aim is to build a connection with the customer, profile them, and foster loyalty. The advantages of loyalty cards for shops are numerous:
Loyalty programs encourage customers to return to the store more frequently and spend more, thanks to rewards such as discounts and gifts. This can lead to an increase in sales and profits for the store.
The adoption of loyalty cards enables the issuing company to understand what interests the consumer and in what quantities, allowing them to forecast consumption and better manage stock, as well as propose tailored offers.
The use of loyalty cards provides stores with a direct communication channel with their customers, useful for sending promotions and information about their products or services.
Gift cards offer the possibility to give a monetary value to be spent within the store; both the value and the duration can vary. This type of card also provides significant benefits to businesses that decide to adopt them:
Gift cards are paid for at the time of purchase, allowing the store to receive money in advance for products or services that will be provided in the future.
Those who receive a gift card from a store where they have never shopped before will not only be prompted to visit the store to spend the card’s value but, if the experience is positive, they are highly likely to continue shopping there afterwards.
Gift cards can be used by companies as a form of fringe benefit for their employees. Fringe benefits are an additional element to the salary that companies can provide to their staff in the form of non-monetary compensation (e.g. company car, smartphone, meal vouchers). In Italy, article 51 of the TUIR (Testo Unico delle Imposte sui Redditi) allows for the provision of benefits in the form of gift cards.
This type of personalised gift card for businesses offers advantages for small, medium, and large companies, as fringe benefits are tax-exempt. Additionally, employees benefit by being able to spend the credit according to their individual needs.
The selection of the best gift cards or loyalty cards for stores starts with choosing the right material. At Partitalia, we offer a wide range of materials for our loyalty cards:
Recycled PVC and degradable PVC: providing the same technical characteristics as standard PVC, but with a more sustainable profile.
Bamboo, maple, or lime wood: these allow for cards with a unique look, thanks to the natural colour and grain of the wood.
Loyalty cards with barcodes are available in the ISO standard format as well as minicards, non-ISO cards that are smaller than the standard format, designed to fit comfortably in a wallet or be attached to a keychain. Particularly popular in the loyalty sector are 3 up cards, loyalty cards with barcodes that are pre-cut into three parts. These feature the same barcode on the reverse of each section, allowing them to be shared among members of the same household.
In our facility, we offer the best loyalty cards printing service. We produce customised loyalty cards with company logo or the design chosen by our clients, either in colour or black and white, resulting in a unique card that fully reflects the brand’s characteristics.
We provide custom loyalty card printing and custom gift card printing for Retail using offset and silkscreen printing. The customisation — such as adding variable data like barcodes and sequential numbering — is carried out with techniques like inkjet printing and thermographic printing.
Finally, once printing and personalisation are completed, we offer additional services — known as fullfilment — such as barcode labelling, flow packing, and enveloping.
We collected the most important questions about loyalty and gift cards and the advantages of their use in Retail.
Loyalty cards with barcodes are common in Large-Scale distribution and Retail, enabling the creation of a points-based reward system tied to customer spending. By offering discounts and tailored promotions, these cards help foster stronger customer relationships. Additionally, they allow businesses to profile customers and better understand their buying behaviours.
Loyalty cards foster customer loyalty and drive sales: motivated by dedicated discounts and promotions, customers are encouraged to return to the store more frequently and make larger purchases. Additionally, loyalty cards create a direct communication channel between the brand and the customer, allowing for a better understanding of consumer purchasing habits and optimised stock management and replenishment.
Gift cards offer a monetary value to be spent at a specific store and come in various denominations and durations. Moreover, they are widely used by companies as a form of employee fringe benefit.
Using a barcode loyalty card is very simple: at the checkout, when making a payment, the cashier scans the loyalty card with a barcode reader; based on the store’s loyalty program, points are automatically added to the card or the applicable discount is applied to the purchase.
At Partitalia, we produce custom loyalty cards with the client’s choice of logo and graphics, both in colour and black and white. We utilise state-of-the-art industrial printing technologies to produce high-quality loyalty and gift cards, using offset printing and silkscreen printing.
Partitalia specialises in producing custom loyalty and gift cards for businesses. We offer a wide range of personalization options, including variable data printing (barcodes, serial numbers, etc.), using state-of-the-art digital printing technologies like inkjet and thermographic printing.
Partitalia offers a wide range of materials for printing loyalty and gift cards. PVC and PETG provide excellent technical performance, including durability, flexibility, and temperature resistance. For eco-friendly options, we offer recycled PVC, biodegradable PVC, and sustainable materials such as wood – bamboo, maple, or lime wood – and cardboard.
