Growth in UK gift card and voucher market

The UK’s gift card and sales voucher market has had its highest to date year-on-year sales increase. According to the latest statistics from The UK Gift Card & Voucher Association who commissioned the report by Ernst and Young, there has been a growth

of 15.6% in gift card and voucher sales in Q1 of 2011 compared with the same period in 2010.

And paper vouchers saw a growth of 14% compared to the beginning of 2010.

The 5.8% increase in consumer purchases of gift cards and vouchers comes slightly unexpectedly with the recent negative retail growth statistics.

Closed loop cards(redeemable at one specific retailer) saw consistent growth of 5% and came out in the results as the most favoured form of gift card.

Andrew Johnson, Director General of The UKGCVA, commented: “These latest sales figures are extremely positive for the industry with strong performances across the board. The significant increase from the B2B sector reflects the dynamic approach businesses are taking to incentivise and motivate staff. In the consumer market, vouchers and gift cards provide the ideal gifting solution and despite negative general retail sales, it’s encouraging to see this increase in gift card and voucher sales across the consumer sector which we hope will continue into Q2.”

Mark Towler, head of business incentives at House of Fraser, says: ‘Employers can reduce storage, distribution and postage costs if they use gift cards that can be sent out with no value assigned.’