For restaurants, gift cards do more than fill a gap on the holiday wish list. They bring in new diners, lift what guests spend and put cash in the bank before a single meal is served. Run well, a gift card program becomes a steady source of revenue and customers all year round. This guide covers how gift cards help restaurants grow, and how to get the most from a program across one site or hundreds.
Gift cards bring in new diners
When someone gives a restaurant gift card, they’re recommending the restaurant to a friend and paying for the first visit. That’s a warm introduction no advertising budget can quite match. Many people try a restaurant for the first time because of a gift card, and a good first meal can turn them into regulars.
They lift average spend
Guests rarely spend exactly the value of the card. A $50 card often becomes a $65 or $70 check once drinks, appetizers or dessert are added, because the card makes the meal feel partly paid for. That extra spend comes without any extra effort from staff.
They bring in cash before the meal
A gift card is paid for upfront, often weeks or months before it’s redeemed. That cash can help cover fixed costs like wages, rent and supplier bills, giving operators more room to plan.
They steady revenue through slow periods
Every restaurant has quieter stretches, from a wet Monday night to the January lull. Card sales and redemptions can smooth those dips:
- Sell when demand peaks. Gift card sales are strongest around the holidays, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
- Redeem when it’s quiet. Many cards bought in December are spent in the slower weeks that follow, filling tables that would otherwise be empty.
- Use bonus offers. A bonus card with a larger purchase is a proven way to drive sales, and the bonus can be limited to quieter days.
Unspent balances: handle them properly
Not every card is spent in full. Unredeemed value, known as breakage, isn’t simply extra profit: it’s a liability until accounting rules allow it to be recognized, and in some places unclaimed balances have to be handed to the state. Our guide to gift card breakage explains how it works. The bigger win is making cards easy to spend, because a redeemed card is a visit.
Use the data to plan
Gift card sales and redemption data tells you when guests are likely to come in. Tracking when cards are sold and spent helps restaurants anticipate busy periods, plan stock and schedule staff, and judge which promotions actually worked.
Ideas for restaurant gift card promotions
- Holiday bundles. A card plus a small bonus or a dessert voucher for the gift giver.
- Quiet-day bonuses. Extra value that can only be redeemed on slower days.
- Corporate sales. Cards in volume for local businesses to give staff and clients.
- Digital delivery. eGift cards sent by email or text for last-minute gifts.
- Loyalty tie-ins. Rewarding regulars with cards they can share with friends.
Running a program across many sites
For restaurant groups and franchises, the program has to work the same way everywhere:
- One card across all locations, accepted at every site, with balances updated in real time.
- POS integration at every site, so staff can sell, activate and redeem without workarounds.
- Online and third-party sales, so cards are on sale beyond your own restaurants.
- Central reporting, with sales and redemptions by site, so you can see where cards are bought and where they’re spent.
- Clear settlement, so revenue lands correctly when a card bought at one site is spent at another.
How epay Conductor helps restaurants
With epay Conductor, restaurants can:
- issue branded digital and physical gift cards
- sell them online, in restaurant and through third-party distribution
- redeem them through their existing POS
- build, test and track promotions
- see sales and redemption data in real time
epay’s network spans 360,000+ retail locations across 65+ countries. Find out more about gift cards for restaurants with epay Conductor or request a demo.
