Gift Card Blog - ScripSmart

Announcing ScripSmart's Gold Gift Card Score Badge

I'm happy to announce a new badge color for gift cards on ScripSmart: Gold. In short, this new badge will be the highest rank possible for a gift card. Gift cards with Gift Card Scores of 90 or more will be awarded the Gold Gift Card Score Badge.

Before today:

After today:

In words, we've split up the old green badge classification to make room for the gold badge at the top. Gift cards scoring between 80-89 will still receive the a green badge. There has been no change to ScripSmart's scoring algorithm.

Why We Did It

Gold is synonymous with first place, crème de la crème or best of the best. When browsing ScripSmart for the best gift cards, it was easy for consumers to know green was the highest level possible because we frequently display a Gift Card Score Key; however, outside of ScripSmart, it's not as clear. After all, there's no comparison of colors and let's be honest, green is not synonymous with first place.

The original notion of ScripSmart's color scheme had more to do with the colors of a stoplight than anything else. Our goal remains making gift cards easy for consumers to understand and the new gold classification helps us achieve this goal.

There is also a big difference between a Gift Card Score of 80 and 99. Furthermore, it's helpful to identify those who are a cut above the rest. If a gift card scores in the 90's it's one of the most consumer friendly gift card products available and it's less likely to have any gotchas a consumer will encounter.

I also believe the new gold badge will help make it easier for merchant's to adopt and strive for a gold ranking. While not every gift card will every be a perfect 100, I believe ScripSmart's product reviews give gift card issuers important feedback as to how their program compares with others.

Gift Card Score Everywhere

In the end, your going to start seeing Gift Card Score in more places. It will help consumers make better decisions and, in turn, improve the gift card industry for both consumers and merchants.

Cinemak has been an early adopter of embracing their Gift Card Score. The Cinemark Gift Card is a terrific program. Earlier this year, they let other know if by placing their Gift Card Score directly on their website using a widget ScripSmart developed. It's a small snippet of code which always reflects their current Gift Card Score. It's something ScripSmart provides to gift card issuers listed on ScripSmart free of charge and I'd say it demonstrates a commitment to deliver a gift card program which is consumer friendly.

Bass Pro Shops has also been an early adopter of Gift Card Score. They're going to be the first to display their Gift Card Scores in-store at locations nation wide. Bass Pro Shops truly understands the importance of offering a consumer friendly program and by displaying their excellent Gift Card Scores, with their help ScripSmart in well on it's way to accomplishing our mission of making gift cards better.

New Feature: Share Your Favorite Gift Cards

I'm excited to announce a new feature on ScripSmart: Favorite Gift Cards.

The holiday shopping season is fast approaching. November is less than a week away! As of today, you can mark a gift card as a 'favorite' and share the list with family and friends.

Why I Love This New Feature

The concept of creating a wishlist has been requested several times from our users. It's a logical addition and fits into ScripSmart's mission of simplifying gift cards. Simply put, if people are given a gift card they like, there's a better chance they will redeem it and avoid loosing value from post-sale fees, a bankruptcy or misplacing the gift card. By creating a favorites page on ScripSmart to be shared with others, you'll make it easy for them to find the right gift card for you.

Super Easy To Use

Marking a gift card as your favorite is easy, just click on the 'Mark As Favorite' button when looking at a gift card on ScripSmart.

And the gift card will be added to your favorites!

Your favorites page can easily be shared with friends and family. Naturally, you'll have to have a ScripSmart account to create your favorites page, so sign up here.

eGift Cards On ScripSmart Are Now Easier To Spot

When most of see an egift card option for a gift card, we simple think it's the same as a regular plastic gift card, only delivered by email. However, it's rather common for a company's virtual offering to have  different terms and features when compared to it's plastic counterpart.

For example, the DSW eGift Card is not redeemable in-store however it's plastic counterpart the DSW Gift Card can be use both in-store and online. That's an important detail and something every person should know before making a purchase. The DSW is just one of many examples and as a result, ScripSmart scores 'gift cards' and 'egift cards' as separate products with seperate Gift Card Scores.

Up to this point, ScripSmart has simply labeled a traditional plastic gift cards a 'Gift Card' and electronically delivered gift cards an 'eGift Cards'. For example there is both an Amazon Gift Card vs an Amazon eGift Card. However, simply labeling the card type is not enough to distinguish between egift cards and traditional plastic gift card reviews while browsing of ScripSmart.

The fact is, most of us simply look at the image of the gift card. For example, if you were looking for at the Christmas gift card category in ScripSmart, you'd see both egift cards and traditional plastic gift cards displayed and most of the web page is covered by images of gift cards. 

The Solution

Moving forward, egift cards on ScripSmart will be identifiable by three traits:

1) An @ symbol will be placed on each gift card image. We're using the @ symbol because most egift card are delivered via email.

2)  The product image will have square corners and traditional plastic gift cards will have rounded corners. 

3) It will still carry the label 'eGift Card' or 'Gift Card' in the product's name.

Below is an example, you should be able to distinguish the difference, now just by looking at the image of the product.

Yes, the image on the left is an eGift Card.

Hopefully, this makes ScripSmart just a bit easier for you to use. If you have thoughts or suggestions on how to make ScripSmart better, simply contact us to share your thoughts!

Do you think this is a good change for ScripSmart?

New Feature: ScripSmart User Ratings

We're listening to your feedback and as a result, we've just introduced a new feature: ScripSmart User Ratings.

That's right, user can now login to review and rate gift cards! You'll find the 'Average User Rating' for any gift card just below the Gift Card Score on each gift card's webpage. Here is an example of the iTunes eGift Card:

User Ratings vs. Gift Card Score

Each Gift Card Score is generated based on attributes of a gift card's terms, policies and disclosures. In other words, it's a great metric for gauging the consumer friendliness of a gift card. On the other hand, Gift Card Score is not currently great for finding which gift card is most popular or offers the most customer satisfaction after the sale.

User Rankings on ScripSmart will help consumers easily identify which gift cards are most popular and alert them to which gift cards which may have a poor track record for satisfying customers. We'd like to think of ScripSmart User Ratings as "the word on the street".

KISS

Like all things on ScripSmart, the new User Ratings are simple:

1. ScipSmart Users may rate each gift card once. (If you don't have an ScripSmart Account, sign up now!)

2. Individual reviews and the corresponding ratings will be displayed for others benefit.

3. Ratings utilize a star system: 1 star is the minimum representing a poor review and 5 stars represents the best possible rating. Half stars may not be given during the user's review, but are presented for each gift card's average user rating. 

4. Each user has an opportunity to justify their rating of a gift card with specifics as to why they believe the gift card is a good or poor choice for other consumers.

In the end, ScripSmart's User Ratings and Reviews will provide key information to consumers regarding gift card programs and will be just one more tool in helping you find the best gift cards.

If you have any feedback on the ScripSmart, please share your thoughts and send us a note!

ScripSmart's 400th Gift Card Review

We're excited to announce our 400th gift card review: the Gymboree Gift Card. We're also happy to report the review resulted in a great Gift Card Score®: 86 out of 100.

ScripSmart is already the most comprehensive gift card resource for consumers and we're just getting started. We're also the only service dedicated to helping consumers evaluate the quality of a gift card programs. We believe finding the best gift cards should be easy and Gift Card Score makes it possible.

We Research And Publish Reviews, You Buy Smart And Save Time

Each gift card review and the resulting Gift Card Score is just one of the ways ScripSmart makes your life easier.

We spend a lot of time monitoring the gift card industry, digging through websites, terms, FAQs and communicating with retailers in order to find the answers necessary for an accurate gift card review. If you're looking for the best gift cards for kids or the best Christmas gift cards, ScripSmart can help guide you towards making a smart purchase.

A great gift card is more than just no fees and no expiration. Check the Gift Card Score before making your next gift card purchase. If we don't have a gift card already reviewed, send us a note and we'll be sure to add your favorite restaurants, retailers and service providers.