You make business decisions every day to help your company reach and surpass its goals. Well, if those goals include generating additional revenue and making your customers happy, you’re reading the right blog.
Gift cards have always been popular, and have quickly become part of an $800 billion market. But, thanks to the widespread adoption of all things digital and ever-expanding distribution channels, experts are forecasting quick and impressive growth. In fact:
The global gift card market is
expected to grow to $1.4 trillion by 2026.1
Fortunately, you don’t have to look at these numbers and think, “what if.” It’s easy for your company to start your own gift card category and get your piece of the gift card pie.
The Popularity of Gift Cards
How popular are gift cards? Let’s look at some numbers.
Gift cards have been the #1 most requested gift for 15 years in a row.2
62% of consumers bought a gift card in the past year.3
85% prefer to receive a gift card over a gift selected just for them.4
In other words, whether for their favorite brand or for multiple brands on one card, gift cards are ridiculously popular. People love buying them and receiving them; they even love buying them for themselves.
Where Gift Cards are Bought
The common misconception is that if someone wants to buy a gift card for a certain brand, they go to that brand’s website to make the purchase. And, yes, that is the case-sometimes. More often, however, shoppers go into a store or website that sells a variety of gift card brands-a third-party seller.
We have numbers on this, too. Here’s where customers typically buy gift cards, both in-store and online3:
Your Opportunity
As you can see, whether you’re a grocery store, big box, department store, online retailer or something else, becoming a third-party seller of gift cards (and we’ll show you how easy this is in a bit) is a huge opportunity. it’s a win for you, your customers and your bottom line.5
- Increase retail revenue up to 3% or more
- Capture more shopper traffic-60% of gift card buyers go into stores specifically for gift cards
- Drive incremental purchases and increased basket size-66% of impulse shoppers were motivated to buy when the saw the gift card rack
- Gives you a built-in promotional vehicle-gift card promotions are more effective than discounts
Plus, the compact nature of gift cards means that a display rack can become one of the highest profit centers per square foot on your entire sales floor.6
The Decision is Easy-So is the Follow-Through
Deciding to get into the gift card category is an easy decision. But once you decide, then what? You need a partner that can get you into the gift card business quickly and easily-like Blackhawk Network.
More than 20 years ago, Blackhawk Network created the first in-store gift card mall. Since then, we’ve become the industry leader in third-party gift cards and have helped hundreds of partners grow their gift card programs-and their companies.
Talk to Blackhawk Network
To learn more about the growing gift card industry-and how to get your piece of the growing global market-download our ebook, A $1.4 Trillion Opportunity: Why You Can’t Wait to Launch a Gift Card Category.
Then, when you’re ready to start building, growing or optimizing your gift card program, talk to Blackhawk Network. Just click here to get started or call 866.219.7533.
1. Global Gift Cards Market Size, Market Share, Application Analysis, Regional Outlook, Growth Trends, Key Players, Competitive Strategies and Forecasts, 2018 to 2026, ResearchandMarkets.com
2. Consumer Holiday Survey, NRF and Prosper Insights and Analytics, 2021
3. Blackhawk Network EQ Global State of the Union Insights, 2022
4. Blackhawk Network EQ Superlative Research, 2022
5. Blackhawk Network Internal Data, 2019
6. Multinational Merchant Gift Card Omnicommerce Evaluation, NAPCO Research, 2022
