Gifting goes the swipe way

Shoppers spend 50-400% more than gift card value, says a report

Physical and digital gift cards are emerging a major source of revenue for retailers, besides generating footfall.

Digital or e-gift card transactions have risen threefold in as many years, while physical gift card transactions have grown 41 per cent in 2016-17 from 2014-15. The reason: Customers are spending way more than the value of the gift card received and are redeeming these faster.

A study by Qwikcilver, an end-to-end service provider in the pre-paid gift card space, said issuance of physical and digital gift cards had risen 150 per cent in 2016-17 to 50 million, from 20 million in 2015-16. 

According to the