Holiday Shoppers Buy Millions of Dollars’ Worth, Supporting 10,000+ Local Businesses
(MENLO PARK, Calif.) — NEWS: Yiftee, Inc., a leader since 2012 in local business eGift Cards, celebrates having implemented over 200 Community eGift Card Programs across the United States. Consumers, corporations, schools, hospitals and other organizations showed their heartfelt support of small business by buying millions of dollars’ worth of cards that can only be spent in their local communities. Yiftee closed out 2020 on a high note, with many communities making over $100,000 in revenue for their local businesses.
The Yiftee Community Card Program has been helping small businesses across the U.S. weather the Covid-19 storm by offering a multi-brand eGift card that can be used at many participating businesses in a cohesive geography – a city, town, neighborhood or business improvement district. Branded for the community, these cards have many uses from personal to corporate, in addition to making the giver feel good for their connection to and support of the community. With potentially hundreds of choices for how to spend the card, multi-brand Community Cards are more versatile and valuable to buyers than any single-brand card.
Bonus Programs Multiply Funds Going to Local Businesses
Community Cards are available in places of all shapes and sizes. Many communities were able to run promotions during the holiday period, with bonus funds available from local employers, city governments, corporate donors, visitor bureaus and state and federal funding programs such as the CARES Act.
The Amherst Chamber of Commerce and Erie County, NY partnered to launch the Shop 716 card to support their almost one million residents and over 700 participating independent businesses. They launched in mid-November with a free promotional match utilizing CARES Act funding that resulted in an astounding $1.1 million in sales in eight weeks. The incredibly successful program was well received by the community and the merchants stressing the urgency to support local for the pandemic stricken businesses.
Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz expressed the continued need, “While we continue to balance the safety of the community and the much-needed commerce for our local independent businesses, the Shop 716 program emphasizes the shop local theme encouraging residents to assist in this effort. Keeping our businesses open helps them employ our family, friends and neighbors.” Yiftee implemented six-figure holiday bonus programs in Boulder CO, Fenton MI, Frisco CO, Nashville TN, Royal Oak MI, Whatcom County WA and others.
On a smaller scale, in North Bay Village, FL, population 8,300, Community Card organizer Cynder Haines commented, “Yiftee has made it easy for us to distribute tens of thousands of dollars to support our residents and local businesses, and we’re already seeing thousands of dollars more being spent. Yiftee is a great service, and it adds a lot of value for us as a small city. Thank you so much!” Yiftee has Community Cards in many more small towns like Del Mar CA, Hastings on Hudson NY, Lancaster SC, Pleasantville IA and Zelienople PA.
Employees Get Many Choices
“Evans Bank appreciates the leadership of Erie County and the Amherst Chamber in quickly mobilizing this program to support Erie County businesses in response to COVID-19,” said David J. Nasca, President & CEO of Evans Bank. “We provided Shop 716 gift cards to all of our associates during the holidays and they greatly appreciated the opportunity to assist the stressed small businesses in our community when they most needed it. We continue to encourage our customers to shop local and our business clients to participate in the program.”
Annette Cornish, Management Assistant, sent several dozen Downtown Hillsboro OR cards on behalf of her organization. “I have had feedback from several employees.” she said. “They are very excited about the gifts and being able to support our downtown vendors. Your gift has been a morale boost during these hard pandemic times.”
Simple to Create and No Cost for Organizers or Merchants
Communities interested in implementing a Community Card program can sign up for a demo. Starting a Community Card program is simple and Yiftee provides plenty of support and launch materials. Community Card programs are free for organizers and participating business and require no special equipment or PoS integration. They are redeemed as digital Mastercards(r) and merchants are paid by their Mastercard bank, subject to Mastercard’s normal card-not-present transaction fee.
About Yiftee, Keep Local Dollars Local
Yiftee serves more than 200 communities and 10,000 local businesses with simple, secure, PoS-independent eGift Cards that keep local dollars local. The company works with Chambers of Commerce, Downtowns, Main Streets, Business Improvement Districts and other local organizations to create “Community Cards,” branded for the community and redeemable at 10s to 100s of local businesses. Organizations and individuals purchase them online and send them via email, text or print to friends, family and co-workers to support their local businesses. There is no cost to the organizers or merchants for the program and it can be set up in just a few days. Yiftee also provides custom-branded cards for individual merchants, franchises and chains.
More info at https://yiftee.com/ or email sales@yiftee.com.
*IMAGE link for media: https://www.Send2Press.com/300dpi/21-0126s2p-yiftee-300dpi.jpg
*CAPTION: Yiftee’s locally branded community eGift cards work exclusively at shops and restaurants in an area, funneling millions of much needed dollars into small businesses.
Related link: https://yiftee.com/
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