Chicago restaurant gift certificate

Though separated by geography and concept positioning, the operators of the McCormick & Schmick's multiunit seafood dinner-house chain in Portland, Ore., and Lark Creek Restaurant Group in San Francisco agree that when it comes to selling gift certificates over the Internet using GiftCertificates.com "We can't lose."

Those two companies are among the dozens of food service organizations with close to 170 restaurants nationwide now doing business with GiftCertifcates.com, an Internet company and Website at which visitors can purchase gift certificates for a wide range of eateries and merchants. Routine shipping and handling, including a gift card addressed to the recipient, is free, and certificates are guaranteed to arrive within two to eight days. Overnight or expedite service costs extra.

Packy Longfellow, director of marketing at McCormick and Schmick Management Group, and Quinn McKenna, director of operations for Lark Creek Restaurant Group, explained that the agreement with GiftCertificates.com is straightforward. In exchange for Internet and toll-free telephone fulfillment services and promotional considerations, the restaurants sell a negotiated number of certificates to GiftCertificates.com at a price equal to 80 percent of the certificates' face value.

Besides generating incremental sales, using GiftCertificates.com "gives consumers more choices, and I'm enjoying the marketing exposure; they've done some really exciting [promotional] things," Longfellow said.

Longfellow noted that McCormick & Schmick Management Group sold GiftCertificates.com 134 certificates valued at from $50 to $100 during the first quarter it worked with the Internet service company. However, he said he believes that number was artificially low because of a glitch in the presentation of his company's restaurants at the GiftCertificates.com Website that resulted in what he considered no or poor exposure for nearly two-thirds of his company's 26 units. He said he expects certificate sales to bloom once that presentation issue is corrected and his company's own Website, which recorded 34,000 hits in March, is linked to GiftCertificates.com.

Lark Creek Restaurant Group's McKenna said GiftCertificates.com has purchased between $12,000 and $15,000 in gift certificates from his organization since October.

He said that in addition to promotional activities at the GiftCertificates.com Website, banner advertisements at other Internet locations, and traditional advertising and billboard use, GiftCertificates.com supplied Lark Creek Restaurant Group with 130 $25 certificates to give away to the couples attending a special Valentine's Day dinner at One Market Restaurant in San Francisco.

"It's a no-lose situation for us because if they are not effective in marketing the certificates, they just won't buy anymore," McKenna explained. "I'm confident that most of these certificates are purchased by people who would not have bought them directly from the restaurant, so it [the 20-percent discount] is a small price to pay for attracting new customers."

McKenna added that because gift certificates are not always redeemed by recipients, the discount to GiftCertificates.com can become "an even smaller price to pay."

Though GiftCertificates.com has provided his company with the names and addresses of certificate buyers, McKenna said his group has not decided whether it will send those individuals unsolicited marketing materials. "We don't want to [in the vernacular of the Internet] 'spam' them," he said.

Chain restaurant users of the site include Bahama Breeze, Benihana, California Cafe, Chevys Fresh-Mex, Damon's, Pizzeria Uno and T.G.I. Friday's. Independent operators selling gift certificates through GiftCertificates.com include Citrus in Los Angeles, Cafe BaBa-Reeba! in Chicago and Park Avenue Cafe in New York.