The RYO gift card - a substantial change in the Lithuanian shopping centres’ gift card market

It is a pleasure to give and receive a gift, and this exchange should not be limited. A gift card presented by the RYO shopping centre and introduced by its managing company CBRE is a message to the market expressing the customer-oriented approach. Issued in October, the RYO gift card operating on a basis of a VISA banking card represents a significant change in the gift card market in Lithuania. Its core point is a better convenience and more freedom for both customers - the giving and the receiving.

The valued customer’s time and freedom

”The main advantage of this card is its convenience. Our customers value their time and they are rational. They no longer tend to give each other unnecessary, meaningless presents. The RYO gift card is convenient for such customers as it does not require to spend the entire amount at one store at a time, and the amount of the gift card spending does not have to be a whole number – 77.77 euro might be as a choice as well. A person not requiring something special will be satisfied with the RYO gift card also. Such customer will be able to spend a gift card amount in a grocery store located at the RYO shopping centre or simply have a lunch in one of the restaurants there” – says Jurate Gaspariuniene, Manager of the RYO shopping centre.

A variety of goods can be purchased in the RYO shopping centre with the new gift card. This may be furniture, clothes, footwear, travels, insurance, medicines, a cell phone, a book, a watch, jewellery or just daily lunch. There are more than 80 different trademarks and places on the list where the gift card is valid, and they are going to expand only. The customer will be able to shop in RYO stores within 6 months from the date of purchase of a gift card, valued from 10 to 500 euro and choosing the most needed items from a variety of goods.

According to Gaspariuniene, the new gift card is unique not only in its similarity to banking card, the better convenience compared to the gift certificates, but also operates similarly as the bank-issued payment cards. It can be used multiple times, as long as it has enough funds.

The first step taken

The experienced Icelandic “Valitor hf” company, in cooperation with the Swedish Presend Nordic AB are the RYO gift card manufacturers, issuers and the payment system supervisors. Similar payment instruments are popular in the Nordic market; this system has been introduced to the Latvian buyers also.

“When decided to introduce the gift cards in RYO we realized that there is no complete gift card platform offered in the Lithuanian retail industry, based on international payment card system requiring only an existing POS (Eng. point of sale) terminal in the store.  Although such a well-known European practice became increasingly popular over the last years with a shift to the personalized gift cards, we didn’t find a similar one in Lithuania giving freedom of purchases to the customer, on the one side, and easy in service by single stores and the shopping centre management, on the other side.  The Visa-type gift cards are available at the shopping centre information point in RYO and soon the alternative option of purchase at self-service terminal will be offered, saving the customers’ time”, - says Kristina Lipska, Financial Director of CBRE in Riga.

The aim of the RYO beholder, the Finnish investment company Pontos Group and the managing company CBRE is to become the highly cultural Nordic shopping centre. No surprise, RYO won the Best shopping centre in the Baltic countries 2016 Award in a "Baltic real estate awards" contest organized by the business newspaper "Verslo žinios".

Exclusive design

There was no rush in offering traditional and outdated gift card system when a modern shopping centre RYO was opened after renovation in January 2015.  The inconvenience experienced by the gift card holders was taken into account, inevitable due to various limitations.

”We noticed that customer needs exceeded the common gift card system limits. We were not as fast as we expected on the path to installing the new system because we were the first in Lithuania. But now we can enjoy the result”, – explains the RYO centre manager.

As this product is associated with holidays or an important event, RYO focused on the appearance of the card very much. The card reminds a fragment of a pale skin, it is enclosed in an impressive, luxurious envelope suitable as a gift. According to Gaspariuniene, these benefits were positively evaluated by the first gift card buyers.

The RYO gift cards can be purchased at RYO shopping centre and is valid at the shopping centre only. More information about the gift card available at www.ryo.lt/dovanukortele.