Gift Card and Incentive Card Market - Growth, Trends, Covid 19 Impacts and Forecasts (2023-2028)

The gift card and Incentive Card Market is expected to achieve a CAGR of 9.5% during the forecast period. Despite near-term challenges in 2022, the medium to long-term growth story of gift cards in America and the Asia Pacific remains strong. The rising use of digital currency, e-commerce, and increased smartphone penetration will boost the market.

The worldwide coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the rise in the use of digital gift cards. The demand for cash alternatives has unexpectedly increased worldwide. The pandemic had a positive impact on e-commerce and the rise in e-commerce has spiked the growth of digital gift cards and Incentive cards.

The gift card and Incentive market were driven by a wide range of factors, which supported growth across retail and corporate segments such as the growth of e-commerce, increased adoption to incentivize employees working remotely, digital gifting, and initiatives undertaken by governments, hospitality, and travel industries to revive growth.

Globally, gift card companies are targeting niche areas to expand their businesses.Due to the prolonged lockdown worldwide, there has been shortage of gift products which has ultimately pushed consumers to go for digital gift cards.

Gift Card & Incentive Card Market Trends

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.

Gift Card & Incentive Card Market Competitor Analysis

The Global Gift card and Incentive card Market is moderately Fragmented with big players dominating the market. As the market is lucrative, numerous player is aggressively growing their industry penetration in order to get a competitive advantage over others. With the growing E-commerce, growing trend of e-gifting, technological advancements, and product innovation, mid-size to smaller companies are increasing their market presence by securing new contracts and tapping new markets. Some of the major players in the market include Apple Inc, Amazon, Aldo, Sodexo, and Carrefour SA.

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