Roots Unveils Ernex-Powered Gift Card Program

Roots, a leading North American lifestyle brand, announced the arrival of its new electronic gift card program at more than 130 retail locations across the United States and Canada.

"Roots gift cards provide our customers with a fun, easy-to-select gift for all occasions and for all types of friends and family, and since their arrival last fall they've been flying off the shelves," said Michael Budman, Co-founder of Roots. "Not only can the gift card be used in Roots stores, but customers can register their gift card online at roots.com to protect the balance in the event the gift card is lost or stolen, as well as check the remaining balance at any time."

Electronic gift cards - such as those from Roots - are easier to monitor, merchandise and display compared to paper gift certificate programs and consequently, lead to an increase in overall gift card sales. Ernex also works with merchant customers to enable real-time promotions within their gift card solutions, including "swipe n' win" sweepstakes programs, custom receipt coupons, and custom receipt messages.

"Roots is a market leader in the specialty retail space, and we worked very closely with them to ensure that Ernex's technology fits well with their future plans for a fully-integrated point-of-sale set-up," said Malcolm Fowler, Vice President & General Manager of Ernex. "Moneris will be working with Roots to implement the new system, which will allow sales associates to process payments for merchandise and gift cards on the same, easy-to-use terminal."

Roots recently activated 50,000 gift cards as part of a recent promotion for American Express. "Hands down, Ernex's gift card program has enhanced our ability to work with partners to distribute gift cards and align on promotional efforts," said Budman. "Business-to-business gift card sales are becoming increasingly important to Roots. These types of promotions also help drive additional in-store traffic and sales."