Gift Card Popularity Continues To Grow In Canada

Please don’t assume that because it’s the summertime, gift cards aren’t all that popular. While most Canadians will associate the purchases of gift cards with the end-of-year holiday season, it’s important to note that gift cards remain popular all year-round. Keep in mind that there are always reasons to celebrate. And the summer comes with plenty of them! In fact, we’re currently in the middle of graduation season.

Students from all over Canada are celebrating their graduations from high school, college and university right now. Naturally, they are receiving gifts from their loved ones, as a result. Who says gift cards don’t sell in the summer? As merchants from all over the country can attest to, gift cards remain very popular items for sale. In fact, back during our last holiday season, it was shown that gift card popularity is only growing in Canada.

On InnovativeRetailTechnologies.com, Christine Kern reveals that a survey conducted by Blackhawk Canada found that “Canadian shoppers are increasingly turning to gift cards for gift-giving occasions, citing choice as the most attractive feature of the cards…Gift cards have the highest awareness among prepaid products, and attitudes about giving and receiving gift cards are also positive, with gift card malls being the top purchasing destination.”

What other factors contribute to the increasing popularity of gift cards in Canada? According to Steve Dekker, who is the managing director of Blackhawk Canada, the internet has a lot to do with it. That advent of “egifts” is encouraging gift-givers to select gift cards that enable their recipients to go online to make their purchases. Canadians are “increasingly choosing egifts”, he is quoted as saying.

“Popular for a wide range of recipients and occasions, gift cards and eGift adoption are growing, with 33 percent of respondents reporting that they had purchased an egift in (2015), an increase over 26 percent in 2014,” informs Kern, “And 59 percent said they would like to receive an egift this year, up from 43 percent last year.” She goes on to reveal a number of other important findings from the Blackhawk Canada survey.

“Eighty-seven percent of respondents have both purchased and received gift cards in the last year, up from 68 percent in 2010, while more than half of respondents who purchased a gift card in the past year bought four or more cards (53 percent),” she writes, “Seventy-six percent stated they would prefer to receive a gift card from one of their favourite stores rather than a specific gift.”

Are gift cards ideal gifts for everyone? Kern reveals that gift cards make ideal gifts for just about any recipient. The Blackhawk Canada survey found that gift card recipients are made up of family friends, spouses and partners, parents, siblings and children. And while the winter holidays mark the time of year when gift card sales are at their highest in Canada, they are also popularly sold as birthday presents, thank you gifts and even for self use.

“Nearly all Canadian consumers (99 percent) are aware of gift cards, higher than the level of awareness for prepaid phone cards or prepaid debit cards,” Kern reveals. Isn’t it about time you offer the sale of gift cards in your store? At Canadian POS Corporation, we’re happy to provide you with that option. For more information about how to sell gift cards in your store, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 1-877-748-2884 or email us at info@localhost.