The recently released 2023 UK Retail Gift Cards Evaluated: Comprehensive Guide for Best Practice and Opportunities, UK Edition, a comprehensive report produced by NAPCO Research in conjunction with sponsor partner Blackhawk Network, features an assessment of retailers’ e-commerce/digital, mobile, and in-store gift card offerings. The report seeks to provide an omnicommerce view into the consumer gift card purchase and recipient experience. The full report can be downloaded here.
One of the ways the data collected is parsed is by average score for the nine different product verticals represented by the 50 total retailers assessed. The average omnicommerce score across all industries was 62 percent — i.e., the retailers earned 62 percent of the available points for the omnicommerce criteria. Here’s a breakdown of overall performance YoY by vertical:
Following the pandemic, the rise of remote working, and the phenomenon dubbed the “Great Resignation,” focus on employee engagement and well-being is in sharper focus than ever. Incentivizing employees with rewards such as gift cards can play a key role in cultivating a desirable company culture and differentiating employers in a competitive market. With this in mind, retailers should be thinking about how they can sell their gift cards to other businesses, not limiting their gift card market to consumers only. Consider the following data:
- Research from Blackhawk Network found that a great majority (86 percent) of employees cite rewards such as gift cards as an incentive that made them feel valued by their employer.
- In 2023, B2B programme scores saw a rise of 8 percentage points year-over-year from 40 percent to 48 percent, a positive indicator that retailers are investing in the opportunity.
- While the trend is encouraging, overlooking B2B programmes as a key growth channel is unwise — insight from the Gift Card & Voucher Association (GCVA) puts the B2B segment at 67.4 percent of all sales.
Download the 2023 UK Retail Gift Cards Evaluated: Comprehensive Guide for Best Practice and Opportunities, UK Edition today to get best practices for boosting the performance of your gift card program as well as insights into how retailers’ gift cards programmes are trending year-over-year.
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