New gift card platform aims to steer holiday spending to St. Louis small businesses

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - A new platform called Gift Better lets businesses and individuals buy gift cards that can be used at local St. Louis merchants, as small business owners cite rising costs and slower sales ahead of the holidays.

Inflation, rising housing costs and higher gas prices are straining many people. Local business owners say the economy is affecting them, and many hope people will spend locally during the holidays.

Rising costs weigh on local businesses

Rising costs and slower sales have forced many local businesses, especially restaurants, to close in recent months.

“We’re all trying to make it, we’re trying to take care of our employees, we’re trying to be good neighbors, and it’s a tough economy right now,” said Tamara Keefe, founder and CEO of Clementine’s Ice Cream.

Clementine’s is entering the slower fall and winter months. Higher costs, mostly due to tariffs, are another burden the St. Louis business can’t escape.

“We use really high-end chocolate that we import from out of the country. Our cost of goods have gone up 30% to 40%, and you can’t raise your prices 30% to 40%,” Keefe said. “So having other means people can come out and support us, hospitality folks, is really important.”

How Gift Better works

Gift Better is a way to give gift cards for local businesses. Founder Mark Sawyier saw an opportunity to keep money local, especially the dollars businesses and corporations spend on gifts for employees.

“People in businesses spend a lot of money on gift cards every year. In the St. Louis region it’s about $2 billion a year, and based on my research I would say less than 10% of that goes to small local businesses, so we created Gift Better to change that,” Sawyier said.

A business or individual can buy gift cards on the Gift Better website. The cards can be used at any of the 85 listed Gift Better merchants, all of which are local to St. Louis.

Sawyier said a lot of businesses throughout the St. Louis metro area have signed on, including many small businesses in the Webster and Kirkwood areas. The goal is to keep growing that number and give consumers more options.

Sawyier described two problems he said Gift Better addresses.

“If you’re trying to give a gift card that’s local, you have to transact one to one, go to your store and buy a gift card. Another problem, which is probably the bigger one, I need to know what your favorite restaurant is. That’s hard enough for a consumer, but for a company that has hundreds or thousands of employees, they’re not going to know what everybody’s favorite restaurant is. So those are the problems Gift Better solves,” Sawyier said.

Sawyier said he is an entrepreneur himself.

“I had the experience of starting things, and I know from talking to a lot of merchants gift cards can be a really important part of their business,” Sawyier said.

Terms for merchants

Sawyier said the platform’s early growth is tied to how easy it is for businesses to join.

“Part of why we’re seeing such rapid success is because it’s a very easy thing for businesses to say yes to. There’s no set up costs, there’s no subscription costs, you can cancel anytime you want, it integrates with your existing gift card program, so there’s no new tech or nothing new you need to do. You just pay a fee for every gift card that we actually sell, which is 6.75%,” Sawyier said.

Keefe said signing on with the platform was an easy decision.

“Every gift card we sell is one more customer we get to make happy, and it really does help our business from a cash-flow perspective in the winter and down season. Like many restaurants and many folks in hospitality, I think gift cards are an important part of our business,” Keefe said.

Holiday timing and personalized cards

Sawyier said the launch comes at a time when more people want to shop local. He said he might have the figures slightly off.

“For every dollar spent at a small local business, about 40% of those dollars stay within the local economy. A large national or global brand, it’s less than 14% of those dollars staying local,” Sawyier said.

Sawyier said he also is trying to make giving a gift card more fun and thoughtful by allowing users to personalize it.

“You can put a photo of your cat or your pet or your family or whatever and print it on the physical card,” Sawyier said.

St. Louis business owners like Keefe hope people will keep their dollars in the bi-state area during the holidays.

“Give everybody a $20 gift card via Gift Better to a local business, and it’s really fun. It’s a great stocking stuffer, it’s a great Hanukkah gift, there’s lots of opportunities to leverage Gift Better,” Keefe said.

“Instead of giving someone a generic brand global gift card of some sort, if you give them a local gift card, not only is it keeping the money here, but now it’s an experience. Someone is going to go out in the community, have a meal, go shopping, they’re going to go do something, and I think it’s a better gift,” Sawyier said.

More information about Gift Better is available at giftbetter.com.