No more socks for Dad…give him an electronics or sporting goods gift card

The 2011 Ezi-Pay Gift Station Christmas Shopping Survey
Don’t know what to get Dad this Christmas? Here’s a hint – give him a gift card for an electronics or sporting store and you’ll be his favourite person, but whatever you do, avoid buying him health and beauty products or ‘experience’ gifts.

Ezi-Pay has released the findings from its 2011 Gift Station Christmas Shopping survey, which show some interesting results.

Despite most people saying they expect to spend the same on gifts as last year (spend of $20 to $50 per person for between 6 and 10 people), nearly every respondent listed Consumerism as the worst thing about Christmas Day. Having to spend time with relatives you don’t like and Christmas Day traffic, particularly for those in Auckland, also made it onto the list of the worst things about Christmas.

Teenagers want gift cards, clothing/accessories and books, DVDs or computer games, while those over 50 years old would be happiest with jewellery, gift cards and books or CDs.

However, across the board, gift cards were the most desirable Christmas gift, with 72% of respondents saying they would rather receive a pre-paid gift card than an actual gift.

This is no surprise, says CEO of Ezi-Pay, Dave Spicer, and in line with international trends that show gift cards are top of the Christmas wish list. 

Pre-paid gift cards can be bought for either specific stores or for a category of business, such as the Restaurant Card or the Gardening Card.  Historically, entertainment-type cards (Movie Card, iTunes and Hoyts) have proved popular at Christmas, but this year, Dave is expecting to see a jump in the sale of online cards such as game cards, which allow players to purchase online games and in app top ups, without having to put their credit card details online.  

“We expect game cards to be popular with parents gifting value to their children, who might be playing online games such as Moshi Monsters, Club Penguin, Sony and Xbox. The cards can be low value, making them the perfect Christmas stocking filler.

“With the continuing rise in popularity of daily deal sites, we are also expecting our new  grabone card to be a hit this Christmas. This is great for people who either don’t have a credit card or don’t want to put their credit card details online, but still want to take advantage of the great deals on offer”.

The economic downturn is having an effect on Christmas shopping habits, with 54% saying they will compare prices online and 52% saying they will only buy gifts when they are on sale. Daily coupon sites are also making an impact, with 41% saying they would use these sites as a way to save money on gifts.

And while most people will be hitting the shops in November or early December, a very organised 14% started their Christmas shopping before September, and even more surprisingly, 20% of men stated they had started shopping immediately following the previous Christmas.

Here's what's up for grabs:

• One flight ticket worth up to $2000USD
• Lots of prizes from iPads to $100USD vouchers of your preference.

ezetop recharges are available from all Ezi-Pay retailers.

Click here for full terms and conditions.

New to the Ezi-Pay gift card line up

We're delighted to introduce two new gift cards to Ezi-Pay's Gift Station line up.

The Pharmacy Gift Card can be spent in Unichem, Amcal, Life and Radius Pharmacies and Care Chemists up and down the country (see the full list of retailers at www.pharmacygiftcard.co.nz).

Plus, the GrabOne card, which can be spent on all sorts of great experiences at the enormously popular www.grabone.co.nz web site.

ezetop expands reach

International top-up provider ezetop has added a huge list of mobile operators to its service, so you can now send top-up to many more mobile phones in India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

International top-up lets you top-up the phones of friends and family overseas. Calling rates from developing countries are often much cheaper than from New Zealand to those countries. That means the gift of top-up not only helps towards phone bills but also lets you keep in touch for less.

See www.ezetop.com for more information.

Ezi-Read Winter 2011 edition

News and tips for maximising your prepaid income are in the Winter '11 Ezi-Read. There are very special margin offers on Talk4Less and KiaOra phone cards, everything you need to know about international top-up, the outstanding retailer award, 2degrees winners and much more > download it here

Yabba capped calling $2 for 2 hours - starts 1 April 2011

$2 for 2 hours to UK (excludes mobiles), USA, Canada, Australia (excludes mobiles) when calling from a landline (excludes payphones), or a Telecom mobile from New Zealand.

Yabba Capped Calling offer is available from landlines (excluding payphones) and Telecom mobiles calling from New Zealand to landlines in the countries listed, as well as mobiles in USA and Canada.

Calls are charged at the normal per minute rate until they reach $2. After 2 hours, normal per minute rates apply. For full terms and conditions visit www.yabba.co.nz

Ezi-Pay partners with international leader in prepaid technology to launch prepaid game cards in 4,500 New Zealand retail locations

Auckland, December 2010 — From cultivating virtual farms to battling virtually against thousands of online players across the world, it’s now possible to give anyone in New Zealand the gift of online gaming through a simple prepaid card system.

Ezi-Pay, New Zealand’s leading prepaid gift card distributor, has entered into a strategic partnership with InComm, the global leader in sales and marketing of prepaid products to support the retail launch of new prepaid gaming and content card partners at over 4,500 retail locations throughout the country.

That means that gamers of all ages and levels can buy or receive prepaid cards to allow them instant access to a range of thousands of games through their computers and other gaming devices.

The cards allow users to purchase games, levels, experience or products in resource based games and are very popular overseas, where people often do not have access to a credit card for purchasing online.

Here, Ezi-Pay expects there to be huge interest from the large number of gamers across a wide demographic in New Zealand, which extends to 91% of New Zealanders aged 6 to 15 years and
 43% of those over the age of 50 years* - figures expected to climb with the increase in Facebook and other social media gaming applications.

In addition to InComm’s product suite, Ezi-Pay has directly engaged the “Ultimate Game Card”, which will be a part of the new range offering holders access to over 1000 popular online games from adventure role playing games through to sci-fi and card games.

Leveraging InComm’s key international partnerships and products, this new distribution partnership will provide Ezi-Pay access to a large suite of new products.

“Partnering with InComm strengthens our position as New Zealand’s premier gift card provider,” said Dave Spicer, CEO for Ezi-Pay. “Leveraging InComm’s relationships, we will now be able to provide our merchants access to a number of key international partners and products. This added depth of product offerings helps build additional consumer demand and continues to drive awareness for our prepaid program which is already the most extensive in the New Zealand market.”

Accompanying the new card partner relationships, InComm is also working with Ezi-Pay to develop promotions and marketing campaigns to capitalise on the upcoming holiday season. Both companies anticipate a strong fourth quarter for the prepaid category in New Zealand.

The new range of prepaid gaming cards, including the Ultimate Game Card will be available from outlets throughout New Zealand from early December.

Digicel double top-up offer

Send credit to Digicel mobiles in the Islands on on 20th and 21st October 2010 and they'll get double the credit you send!

Introducing Digicel top-up to NZ

Digicel is a major mobile phone network operator in the Pacific Islands.   They have low calling rates from the islands to NZ and Digicel top-up is designed to send prepaid credit for Digicel mobiles from NZ to the Islands.

Digicel top-up vouchers can be used to apply credit to Digicel prepaid mobile phone accounts in Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Top-up vouchers are only available through Ezi-Pay retailers.

Digicel top-up comes in $15, $20, $30 and $50 denominations and prints as a voucher from your Ezi-Pay terminal. Find out more at www.digicelrecharge.com

Introducing SpeakEzi - exclusive to Ezi-Pay

SpeakEzi is a phone 'card' with a difference. One in four wins bonus value, giving your customers a lot more talk time.

SpeakEzi is available in 3 variants – India SpeakEzi, South America SpeakEzi and Middle East SpeakEzi. Each SpeakEzi features the sharpest rates to its specialised region as well as great rates to New Zealand, Australia, UK, USA etc.

SpeakEzi is available in $10 and $15 vouchers, printed from your Ezi-Pay terminal and it's only available on Ezi-Pay.

SpeakEzi offers great retailer margin, it's heavily promoted and it's set to become one of the biggest sellers we have. Smart rate sheets are available to hang on your Ezi-Pay phone card stand - order now

CardCall phone card bonus

Customers recharging Daybreak, RateSaver & Superbuzz Asia phone cards with $20 receive a bonus credit of $4 from 11th January - 28th February 2010.

See www.cardcall.co.nz for more information and terms and conditions.

• The Warehouse
• Accor Hotels (Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Grand Mercure, Novotel, Mercure, All Seasons and Ibis in New Zealand, Australia and Fiji)
• The Gardening gift card (spend at more than 200 Gardening New Zealand retailers nationwide)