Saturday Jan. 18 is the first official National Use Your Gift Card Day, a Boca businesswoman’s brainstorm.
It started when public relations guru Tracy Tilson was going through her wallet. She found several unused gift cards. “If I have them, so do a lot of other people,” she reasoned. That was her aha moment.
Tilson trademarked UseYourGiftCard.com and formed useyourgiftcard.com, a separate company. She worked with the Retail Gift Card Association and a consultant, and talked to merchants. “They loved it,” she said.
https://useyourgiftcard.com/ has deals and gift card tips from familiar brands like AMC Theatres, Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Red Lobster and Panera Bread. BurgerFi is her agency’s client, Tilson said.
Consumers expected to buy three or four gift cards as presents, spending an average of $47 for $27.5 billion, the federation said. But $3 billion is destined to go unspent.
“Everyone can relate. This will always be the third Saturday in January, after the holidays,” she said about the National Day.
“You get yourself organized for the year. This just made sense,” she said about the gentle reminder.
In fact, this wasn’t Tilson’s first brainstorm. “I’m a serial entrepreneur,” she said. “I have 100 Go Daddy URLs saved.”
By Marci Shatzman