What are you waiting for? If you are a business in Carlsbad, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by being involved in this free eGift Card program designed exclusively for Carlsbad businesses. If you are a consumer, you should put Gift Carlsbad on the top priority of your holiday gift giving list!
For the 2021 holiday season, we are bringing back a new and improved Gift Carlsbad program to creatively incentivize you to shop local this holiday season. Gift Carlsbad 2.0 is a similar program to what we had last year, but it is much more user-friendly to the consumers, and also much easier to implement for the merchants.
How Does It Work for Consumers?
Last year you had to purchase eGift Cards for a specific company and that was the only place you could use it. Now, you can make a purchase, receive your bonus, and use it for any participating business in Carlsbad. You cannot redeem these gift cards or bonus cards anywhere but with participating merchants in the City Carlsbad that are on the list at www.giftcarlsbad.com.
Bonuses Are Back
Have we got incentives for you! If you make a $40 gift card purchase, you will receive a $10 bonus card. If you purchase a $75 gift card, you will receive a $25 bonus gift card – that’s a 33% bonus! And if you purchase a $100 gift card, you will receive a $40 bonus gift card – 40% bonus. The bonus gifts are only good until the bonus funds run out, so don’t delay. While gift cards in the State of California never expire, bonus dollars do. So don’t delay to redeem as you will only have 90 days to use those bonus dollars. Lastly, in full disclosure, there is a transaction fee when you make these eGift Card purchases – not as steep as you find in the store when you purchase a Visa or other gift card – but there is a fee. But your bonus eGift Card will more than make up for your fees.
How Does It Work for Carlsbad Retail, Restaurant and Service Businesses?
This entire program is based on a MasterCard platform. So, if you are a business owner/operator and can accept MasterCard payments over the phone, or via a web portal, etc. you can participate in this program. To prepare your point-of-service system to accept these payments, you need to run an authorizing code that we provide you (contact the Chamber of Commerce or Carlsbad Village Association and we will guide you). It is really that simple. You run the access code that we provide you from any payment terminal, and then that terminal is ready to process Gift Carlsbad gift cards. When you run the code, you will be listed on our Gift Carlsbad website and you are ready to go. There is no setup involved, no fees, no cost. Just run our Activation Code and you are set.
Where Do I Start?
If you are a business, contact the Carlsbad Village Association or Chamber of Commerce and we will get the Activation Code invitation to you. There’s no better time to get involved!
For consumers, the best place to get started is on our Gift Carlsbad website: www.giftcarlsbad.com. We anticipate over 100 businesses will be part of it once it is fully rolled out. Right now, it is just getting started, so check back often as the list grows and grows. Consumers can make purchases right on the Gift Carlsbad portal and you will receive your gift cards and bonus cards via email.
In 2020, thanks to generous funding by the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce Ready Carlsbad Business Alliance, with support by the City of Carlsbad, the Carlsbad Village Association and Visit Carlsbad, Gift Carlsbad was created to stimulate the local small business economy just in time for the holidays. It brought nearly $90,000 of economic activity to our local businesses at a time when they needed the money the most.
