Gift cards and vouchers have always proven to be popular Christmas gifts, and this trend has surged in recent years as consumers increasingly wish to save up for expensive electronic items such as tablet computers and smartphones. However, according to the UK Gift Card and Voucher Association (UKGCVA) this Christmas is set to see the highest volume of gift cards and vouchers ever purchased in a single season.
The UKGCVA predicts that around £2 billion in Christmas spending will be solely dedicated to gift cards and vouchers, with consumers in their droves picking up their gifts in the run up to the day itself. At present, the gift card, voucher and stored value solutions market is worth £4.7 billion, largely thanks to the consistently steady growth seen in the sector throughout this year.
This is especially encouraging as industry experts were originally concerned that the spate of store administrations early in the year would cause consumers to lose faith in the gift card industry. Stores such as GAME and HMV stopped accepting gift cards as payment methods after calling in administrators, leading to a feeling of anger in many UK consumers.
Director General of the UKGCVA, Andrew Johnson, was pleasantly surprised that this did not turn out to be the case.
He says; “Whilst the wider retail industry has seen fluctuating purchasing behaviour from consumers over the past year, gift cards and vouchers appear to have been an exception to this rule.
“It’s both encouraging and interesting to see evidence that consumer confidence in gift cards and vouchers seems to have been relatively unaffected by fall-out from high street administrations and issues around voucher redemption earlier this year.”
Yet it is not only families and friends that are expected to contribute to the rush for gift cards this year – employers are increasingly cottoning on to the fact that staff will be more motivated if they feel they are appreciated by their company. Therefore, receiving a gift card for a store such as John Lewis or Debenhams can actually increase morale over the Christmas break and see productivity lift going in to the New Year.
Mr Johnson continued; “We have witnessed strong growth from the corporate sector this year too.
“We don’t expect this to slow anytime soon either, especially as more and more companies see the benefits of using vouchers as part of customer incentive or employee reward schemes during the Christmas period.”
Does your company tend to reward employees for their hard work at Christmas using personalised corporate gifts such as mugs, pens or hampers, and if so would you prefer to receive a gift voucher to put towards the cost of a larger item in the Christmas sales?
Previous Post
Oxfam to make cuts to Commercial Property Portfolio
No related posts found for this post.
