Gift cards serve as ‘unicorn growth’category in India with growth rate of 3x year-on-year

Qwikcilver, India’s Pioneering Enterprise SaaS Technology and end-to-end prepaid gift card solutions company, unveiled a whitepaper on the changing gifting dynamics driven by the rapid growth of gift cards and their increasing contribution to the Indian retail industry at Asia’s first-of-its-kind Gift Card Conclave’ held in Bengaluru yesterday. According to the white paper, e-gifting transactions have grown threefold in the last three years. Insights from the report also showcased that the gift card category in India is growing at a rapid rate of 3x year-on-year.
The Future Group Gift Card Portfolio was launched by the management team attending this conclave. The Raymond Gift Card was also unveiled and launched that was attended by more than 150 leading brand owners including Shoppers Stop, Spar India, Titan, Amazon, Flipkart, Taj Hotels and TTK Prestige among others.
Some of the insights as part of the whitepaper include:
– The gifting category in India is undergoing a massive transformation and is estimated to be at US $40 billion. It is broadly split into four broad categories – festival gifting, occasion based gifting, personalised gifting and corporate gifting
– The average spend for the top value segment i.e. hospitality is Rs 9,750, while the average load value across different categories stands at Rs 2,126,
54 per cent of the gift cards are redeemed by the end consumers within 30 days of purchase
– Digital gift cards have grown at a faster pace than physical gift cards in India – leapfrogging the Indian market trends in comparison to the western markets. Digital gift cards will constitute an increasingly higher share of as high as 80 per cent for the top 10 brands of India by 2019-20.
– In the age of digital distraction, an integrated Omnichannel retail experience across categories of retail, e-commerce, hospitality, travel, gift cards and e-gift cards are fast becoming the preferred gifting choice of the new-age consumer.
Speaking on this occasion Co-Founder & Director, Qwikcilver, TP Pratap said “The act of ‘gifting’ is at the crossroads of social and commerce, which arguably, are the two biggest key drivers of consumer consumption. The gifting category in India is also undergoing massive transformation. A continuously widening consumer base, combined with a wide array of gifting options ensures that the category will continue to grow. Qwikcilver is the pioneer in the gift card sector, having powered close to US $1.3 billion worth of gift cards across categories through our robust SaaS based platform. Therefore, it is only fitting that as market leaders we hosted Asia’s first of its kind Gift Card Conclave.’’
Group CEO, Future Group, Kishore Biyani said via video at the conclave, “We believe that gifting is one of the biggest social interactions and social events in our society. At Future Group, we believe that gifting will be a very big business for us, which maybe touching Rs 1,000 crore very soon. We have launched a separate division and a new organisation to manage this business – called Future Gifting. This will handle all the gifting related business of the Future Group. In partnership with Qwikcilver, we have launched gift cards, e-gift cards and gift vouchers for all our formats to be sold and managed through Qwikcilver.”
Customer Care Associate and Managing Director, Shoppers Stop Ltd, Govind Shrikhande said via video at the conclave, “Gifts have always had a special place in our hearts. Traditionally, gifts have been given on occasions. But in recent times, we find that gifts create their own occasions. We see cash getting replaced with gift cards. This is something important made possible because of Qwikcilver. When Qwikcilver approached us to convert our popular gift vouchers into gift cards and e-gift cards, we were very happy. Qwikcilver is providing a great technology platform that makes the experience between the gift giver and gift recipient a very seamless engagement. This transfers the power of choosing a gift to the recipient. It has been a very successful journey for Shoppers Stop – our gift card volumes have grown multi-fold in the last five years since their launch. This is the time to celebrate the arrival of gift cards in India. With the push for digitisation by the Government, it will drive gift cards and e-gift cards to have a significant place in Indians’ hearts.”
Dignitaries from more than 150 leading brands, retailers, enterprises and institutions attended the event and actively evangelised the opportunities in a fast changing Indian gifting market. The conclave focused on the rapid adoption of new age gift card technology platforms by corporates and enterprises and highlighted the paradigm shift into digital gifting. The conclave also showcased the various technology powered digital gifting initiatives that have enabled the gift card segment in India to rapidly scale up. Insights and perspectives on the segment were presented by brand owners and CXOs from across 20 different consumption segments.
Qwikcilver drives a significant market share of the gift card industry. Qwikcilver’s SaaS based technology is also deployed across 10,000 premium brand stores, e-commerce portals and mobile apps in more than 500 cities and towns. The Qwikcilver network has grown by 300 percent year-on-year for the last 4 years and currently processes over 120+ million transactions annually.