Kay's Steak & Lobster (KSL), a casual steakhouse realised quickly that fewer dine-in customers, due to the COVID-19 health crisis, meant they needed to find new ways to earn revenue and improve cash flow.
KSL decided to sell gift cards online through UMAI’s platform. It took them 15 minutes to create an account, set up the gift cards in their own widget link, define the Terms and Conditions and make it LIVE.
The benefits of using gift cards to fight against the lockdown were clear:
- It is great for the cash flow of restaurants, as they receive income now.
- 10% to 19% of gift card balances remain unredeemed and around 6% of gift cards are never used, which means great margins for restaurants.
- Customers who have bought gift cards spend more money: a study from First Data concludes that 80% of consumers with a Fine Dining or Fast Casual Restaurant gift card spend more than the value of their card. On average, customers spend 20% more when using a gift card.
- Gift cards give loyal customers an easy and quick way to support businesses.
"It has been the best thing we’ve done to combat the slow down in our dine-in traffic and improve our cash flow." — Aizuddin, Director of Kay's Steak & Lobster
Getting the word out about their cards was key to their success. They messaged their database of customers, and made several Instagram and Facebook posts. This led to CAD9,940 in 9 days — which equals to around 29.5% of what they normally make in average dine-in sales.
Are you interested in selling gift cards as a new source of revenue at the lowest possible cost to you? Sign up below for a demo request: we are giving this feature away for free for the next few months to support restaurants suffering from COVID-19.