Market Trends of Gift Card and Incentive Card Industry
This section covers the major market trends shaping the Gift Card & Incentive Card Market according to our research experts:
Growing E-commerce Worldwide is Driving the Adoption of Gift Cards
After the covid Pandemic, the online purchase of retail products has increased leading to the increase in e-commerce and people followed lockdown and restrictions. Much of the growth for the industry has been triggered by an increase in internet and smartphone penetration. The worldwide digital population in April 2022 stands at 63 percent of the global population i.e five billion internet users worldwide.
The number of consumers who turned to online shopping increased significantly over the last 2 years because of the prolonged lockdown restriction and rising internet and smartphone penetration rate in the country. Many small businesses have started offering gift cards to make the customer loyal to their brands and bring instant cash flow to the business.
Corporate offices are looking for ways to improve employee engagement programs which have also supported the virtual gift cards market's growth. This has led to increased spending on corporate incentives such as gift cards and meal coupons over the last four to eight quarters.
Increasing adoption of smartphone is helping gift card market to grow
The number of smartphone subscriptions worldwide in 2021 surpassed 6.6 billion and is forecasted to further grow further. China, India, and the United States are the countries with the highest number of smartphone users. Around 83.37% of the world's population owns a smartphone.
The increase in smartphone penetration has led to growth in mobile commerce and rising the use to gift cards and incentive cards. Gift cards can be added by users to the app and used whenever they go shopping. It is anticipated that more of these connections will accelerate market growth.
