The global gift cards market size was valued at USD 1393.48 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow from USD 1609.47 billion in 2026 to USD 5097.28 billion by 2034, registering a CAGR of 15.5% during the forecast period from 2026 to 2034. North America dominated the gift cards market with a market share of 39.4% in 2025.
Gift cards are prepaid cards or digital vouchers that allow users to purchase products or services up to a specified value. They are commonly used for personal gifting, employee rewards, promotional campaigns, and customer loyalty programs across retail, hospitality, entertainment, and e-commerce. Demand is growing due to the rapid expansion of online shopping, digital payments, and the increasing popularity of cashless gifting solutions.
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Increasing Focus on Gift Card Security and Fraud Prevention
Rising fraud risks around gift card payments are encouraging retailers and issuers to strengthen transaction monitoring, card activation controls, and consumer protection measures. The Federal Trade Commission reported that consumers lost more than $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, while gift card scams continue to involve calls, texts, emails, and social media messages, increasing pressure for stronger safeguards. Enhanced authentication, transaction alerts, and fraud detection tools are therefore becoming important for protecting consumers and reducing unauthorized gift card transactions.
Growing Integration of Gift Cards with Social Commerce
Social media engagement is creating new opportunities for brands to promote and distribute gift cards through social shopping platforms, shortening the path between product discovery and purchase. The FTC reported that nearly 30% of people who lost money to scams in 2025 said the fraud started on social media, highlighting both the reach and the need for secure transaction experiences within these channels. Social commerce integration is consequently helping brands expand gift card visibility while creating more convenient purchasing options for digitally engaged consumers.
Growth of Corporate Rewards and Increasing Flexible Gifting Preferences Shape Market Evolution
Corporate spending on employee recognition, performance rewards, customer incentives, and channel-partner programs is increasing demand for gift cards in bulk. Business users benefit from flexible reward options that can be distributed across large employee and customer groups without managing physical merchandise. Programs such as employee recognition, sales incentives, and customer loyalty campaigns, for example, use gift cards to reward performance and engagement. The resulting B2B demand is increasing bulk purchase volumes and creating recurring revenue opportunities for gift card issuers and program providers.
Consumer demand for flexible gifting options is increasing the use of gift cards across retail, dining, entertainment, travel, and gaming categories. Recipient choice allows gift card users to select preferred products or services, reducing uncertainty associated with traditional gift purchases. Occasions such as birthdays, weddings, holidays, and employee celebrations, for example, support gift card purchases when personalized product selection is difficult.The resulting preference for convenient and recipient-controlled gifting is expanding purchase frequency and supporting demand across the gift card market.
Unused Balances, Gift Card Breakage, and Financial Risks Limit Market Growth
Unused gift card balances can reduce the effective value of issued cards and create uncertainty around revenue realization for issuers and retailers. Low redemption rates can result from forgotten cards, lost credentials, limited merchant availability, or changes in consumer preferences. Such unredeemed balances can complicate financial forecasting and reduce transaction activity across the gift card ecosystem. The resulting breakage-related uncertainty can limit revenue visibility and create challenges for businesses seeking to maximize gift card utilization.
Gift card fraud, unauthorized purchases, account takeovers, and chargebacks can increase financial losses for issuers, retailers, and payment providers. Fraudulent transactions can require additional verification, transaction monitoring, refund management, and customer-support resources. Digital gift cards can also face risks from compromised accounts and stolen redemption codes, increasing exposure across online distribution channels.These financial and operational risks can raise security costs and restrict market expansion, particularly for businesses with limited fraud-management capabilities.
Travel, Hospitality, and Loyalty Program Integration Expand New Revenue Opportunities
Travel companies, hotels, resorts, airlines, and experience providers can benefit from gift cards designed for stays, travel bookings, dining, and leisure experiences. Demand for experience-based gifting creates opportunities for gift card providers to expand acceptance across hospitality and travel-related services. Companies such as Marriott International and Airbnb offer gift-based options that allow recipients to access accommodation and travel experiences. The expansion of gift cards across travel and hospitality can create new revenue through merchant partnerships, booking-linked programs, and specialized gift card offerings.
Retailers, restaurants, e-commerce platforms, and consumer brands can integrate gift cards into loyalty programs to strengthen customer retention and repeat purchasing. Loyalty-linked rewards can provide businesses with flexible incentives for purchases, referrals, memberships, and promotional campaigns. Companies can also combine gift cards with points-based programs and targeted promotions to increase customer engagement across digital channels. The integration of gift cards into loyalty ecosystems can expand revenue through program partnerships, increased transaction volumes, and recurring business-to-business contracts.
Multi-Channel Distribution and Merchant Acceptance Challenges Increase Market Complexity
Multi-channel distribution across retail stores, e-commerce platforms, mobile applications, and third-party marketplaces can complicate gift card inventory and transaction management. Distribution partners require coordinated systems for activation, balance tracking, order fulfillment, refunds, and customer support across different channels. Channel-specific requirements can increase integration workloads and create inconsistencies in transaction processing and customer experiences. Such operational complexity can increase technology and management costs while making distribution expansion more difficult for gift card providers.
Merchant acceptance across different retailers, service providers, payment platforms, and geographic markets can create interoperability challenges for gift card providers. Differences in payment systems, redemption rules, expiration policies, and transaction infrastructure can limit seamless gift card usage across participating merchants.Cross-platform compatibility requirements can also increase integration and maintenance costs for issuers seeking broader merchant networks. Such interoperability constraints can complicate market expansion and limit the scalability of multi-merchant gift card programs.
The Closed Loop Gift Card segment accounted for a share of 49.8% in 2025, owing to their widespread use by retailers and brands for customer loyalty, promotional campaigns, employee rewards, and personalized gifting. Open Loop Gift Cards are also gaining traction due to their broad usability across multiple merchants, greater flexibility for recipients, and increasing consumer preference for convenient prepaid payment options. The growing adoption of digital payment methods and gift cards across retail, e-commerce, hospitality, and financial services is further supporting demand for both closed-loop and open-loop solutions.
The E-Gifting segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 21.5% during forecast period 2026-2034, driven by increasing smartphone and internet penetration, rising adoption of digital payments, and growing consumer preference for instant and convenient gifting solutions. The ability to send personalized digital gift cards through online platforms, mobile applications, and social channels is further accelerating adoption, particularly among younger and digitally connected consumers.
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The Retail Establishments segment accounted for a share of 67.3% in 2025, owing to the widespread use of gift cards for customer acquisition, loyalty programs, promotional campaigns, and seasonal gifting across retail stores and e-commerce platforms. Corporate Institutions are increasingly adopting gift cards as employee rewards, incentives, recognition programs, and client appreciation tools, supporting their growing role in the market. The expanding use of gift cards across organized retail, online shopping, and promotional activities is further strengthening demand among retail establishments.
The Corporate Institutions segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.9% during forecast period 2026-2034, driven by increasing adoption of gift cards for employee engagement, performance incentives, customer rewards, and business-to-business gifting programs. The growing focus on flexible employee benefits and digital reward solutions is further encouraging organizations to integrate gift cards into corporate incentive and recognition strategies.
The Restaurants segment accounted for a share of 14.2% in 2025, owing to the widespread use of gift cards for dining, customer loyalty programs, promotional campaigns, and convenient gifting. Department Stores and Grocery Stores continue to contribute significantly as consumers increasingly use gift cards for everyday purchases, while Supermarkets/Hypermarkets benefit from their broad product assortments and high customer footfall. Discount Stores are gaining adoption due to consumers' growing preference for value-oriented shopping, while Coffee Shops utilize gift cards to encourage repeat purchases, customer engagement, and brand loyalty.
The Entertainments segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.4%, driven by increasing consumer spending on leisure activities, experiences, gaming, events, and entertainment services, along with growing adoption of gift cards as flexible gifting options. The expansion of digital entertainment platforms and experience-based gifting is further encouraging consumers to purchase and redeem gift cards across entertainment-related businesses.
The Low (US$0–200) segment accounted for a share of 46.9% in 2025, owing to its affordability, broad consumer accessibility, and widespread use for everyday gifting, promotional campaigns, customer rewards, and small-value purchases. Medium (US$200–400) gift cards continue to serve consumers seeking higher-value gifting options, while High (Above US$400) gift cards are increasingly used for premium purchases, luxury gifting, corporate rewards, and high-value customer incentives.
The High (Above US$400) segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.6% during forecast period 2026-2034, driven by increasing demand for premium gifting, rising corporate spending on high-value rewards and incentives, and growing consumer interest in luxury retail, travel, dining, and entertainment experiences. The expansion of personalized and experience-based gifting is further supporting demand for higher-value gift cards among affluent consumers and corporate customers.
The Offline segment accounted for a share of 56.4% in 2025, owing to the widespread availability of gift cards through retail stores, supermarkets, department stores, restaurants, and other physical merchant locations. Consumers continue to prefer offline channels for immediate purchases, in-store promotions, personalized gifting, and assistance from retail staff. Online sales channels are also gaining traction as e-commerce platforms, digital marketplaces, and merchant websites provide convenient access to a broader range of gift cards, instant delivery, and personalized digital gifting options.
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The North America gift cards market accounted for the largest regional share of 39.4% in 2025, driven by strong consumer adoption of gift cards, extensive retail and e-commerce networks, and the growing preference for convenient and flexible gifting options.
The U.S. gift cards market was supported by strong holiday demand in 2025, with 43% of shoppers planning to purchase gift cards and total spending expected to reach $29.1 billion. Restaurant gift cards remained the most preferred category at 27%, followed by bank-issued and department-store gift cards at 25% each. The growing use of digital wallets and apps, planned by 59% of consumers for holiday purchases, is also supporting convenient digital gift card transactions.
Canada’s gift cards market gained momentum in 2025, with 47% of Canadians planning to give gift cards, up from 42% in 2024, while average planned holiday gift spending reached C$975 per person. The rising preference for flexible gifting options is encouraging consumers to choose gift cards as practical alternatives to traditional presents. Moreover, 73% of Canadians planned to maintain or increase their holiday budgets, supporting continued spending on flexible gifting products such as gift cards.
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The Asia Pacific gift cards market is projected to register a CAGR of 18.7% during 2026–2034, making it the fastest-growing regional market. Growth is being driven by rising digital payments, smartphone adoption, expanding e-commerce, and increasing preference for convenient digital gifting solutions.
China’s gift cards market is expected to benefit from the country’s expanding consumer economy, with total retail sales of consumer goods targeted to reach around ¥60 trillion by 2030, compared with ¥50.1 trillion in 2025. The government is also promoting digital, green, and experience-based consumption, creating favorable conditions for digital gift cards and electronic vouchers. Strong online retail activity, which reached ¥15.97 trillion in 2025, is further strengthening digital channels for gift card distribution and redemption.
Japan is targeting a 65% cashless payment ratio by 2030, compared with 58.0% in 2025, while maintaining a longer-term goal of reaching 80%. This continued shift toward cashless transactions is expected to support greater adoption of digital gift cards, mobile-based gifting, and electronic vouchers. Code payments alone accounted for ¥16.6 trillion in 2025, highlighting the growing digital payment ecosystem available for gift card purchases and redemptions.
India’s gift card market is expected to benefit from the country’s rapid digital-payment adoption and expanding online commerce ecosystem. UPI processed more than 19.8 billion transactions in August 2025, demonstrating the scale of India’s digital payment infrastructure and its potential to support digital gift card adoption. The increasing integration of gifting, payments, loyalty programs, and e-commerce is expected to create additional opportunities for digital and mobile-based gift card solutions.
The Europe gift cards market accounted for a share of 25.8% in 2025, supported by strong retail and e-commerce ecosystems, increasing digital payment adoption, and growing consumer preference for convenient gifting solutions.
The U.K. gift cards market benefited from strong digital purchasing activity in 2025, with 50.5% of total card spending conducted online in September 2025, highlighting the country’s highly developed digital commerce environment. The increasing frequency of online transactions and rising average online spending are supporting wider opportunities for digital gift card purchases and redemptions. The U.K.’s growing preference for online and mobile-based shopping is further strengthening demand for convenient digital gifting solutions.
Germany’s gift cards market is benefiting from the rapid shift toward cashless payments, with 55% of purchases made using cashless payment methods in 2025, marking the first time cashless payments exceeded cash usage. The country also recorded around 14.5 billion card payments in 2025, an 11% increase from the previous year, strengthening the digital infrastructure supporting gift card transactions. Gift cards are also widely integrated across German retail, with 91.1% of large retailers surveyed issuing their own gift cards in 2025.
France’s gift cards market showed strong momentum in 2025, with gift card purchases increasing 22.17% in physical stores and 19% online, reflecting rising consumer adoption across both channels. France’s e-commerce market also reached €196.4 billion in 2025, up 7% year-over-year, creating a broader digital retail environment for gift card distribution and redemption. The B2B segment accounted for nearly 53% of gift card activations in 2025, highlighting the growing role of gift cards in employee rewards and corporate gifting.
The Middle East and Africa gift cards market is projected to register a CAGR of 14.6% during 2026–2034, driven by rising digital payments, expanding e-commerce, smartphone adoption, and increasing preference for convenient digital gifting solutions.
The U.A.E. gift cards market is expected to benefit from the country’s rapid transition toward a digital economy, with the government targeting a doubling of the digital economy’s contribution to GDP from 9.7% in 2022 to 19.4% within 10 years. In 2025, UAEFTS retail transfers increased 17.76% to 114.9 million transactions, while POS transactions reached 560.7 million, strengthening the digital payment ecosystem supporting gift card purchases and redemptions.
Africa’s gift cards market is expected to gain momentum as countries expand digital payment and e-commerce infrastructure, with the World Bank supporting the goal of digitally enabling every individual, business, and government in Africa by 2030. West and Central African countries have also set a 2030 target of doubling intra-African e-commerce and achieving affordable, reliable broadband access for 90% of the population, creating stronger digital channels for gift card distribution and redemption.
The gift cards market competitive landscape is highly fragmented, with competition comprising major e-commerce platforms, payment and financial services companies, gift card and prepaid card providers, retail brands, and specialized digital gifting platforms. Key players such as Amazon.com, American Express Company, Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc., Fiserv Inc., and Givex Corporation collectively are estimated to account for approximately 3% of the global gift cards market share, reflecting the presence of numerous retailers, payment networks, and specialized gift card providers.
Established players compete primarily on brand recognition, merchant and distribution networks, digital and physical card offerings, payment infrastructure, omnichannel capabilities, security and fraud prevention, platform integration, and customer reach. Emerging and regional players in the gift cards market ecosystem compete through digital-first solutions, API-based platforms, personalized gifting, niche merchant networks, flexible redemption options, mobile wallet integration, and cost-effective solutions for businesses and consumers.
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Author's Details
Senior Research Analyst
Sumanta Mahato is a market intelligence and strategy professional with over 4+ years of experience advising organizations across industrial automation, machinery, aerospace and defense, and adjacent industrial technology sectors. He specializes in delivering data-driven market intelligence, strategic assessments, competitive benchmarking, demand forecasting, commercial due diligence, and growth strategy to support informed business and investment decisions.
His expertise encompasses industrial automation systems, manufacturing and process machinery, industrial equipment, aerospace technologies, defense systems, electrical and electromechanical infrastructure, and advanced industrial technologies. He brings strong domain knowledge in assessing market ecosystems, technology landscapes, supply-demand dynamics, regulatory and policy environments, pricing structures, value chains, competitive positioning, and emerging industry trends across global and regional markets.
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