Season's Greetings Everyone!

At the Royal Opera House, London with Padding Bear in Rainbow
designed by Darcey Bussell.

Gift cards and vouchers are among favourite gifts this Christmas

Consumer gift card and voucher sales have soared in the third quarter of 2014, growing by 9.07%, according to statistics from The UK Gift Card & Voucher Association (UKGCVA), the trade body representing the key players in the £5 billion gift voucher, cards and stored value solutions market.

For those of us who have run out of gift ideas for loved ones and friends who have everything, gift cards and vouchers are great ideas.

For Christmas gift ideas, go to Etsy.com

A new report compiled independently by consultants at BDO shows that in the third quarter of 2014, the gift card and voucher industry grew by 9.71%.   Growth among consumers was supported by the exceptional growth of gift card malls, which increased by 72.84%.  Online gift card and multi-choice voucher sales also grew by 13.16% and 48.85% respectively.

Andrew Johnson, director-general of the UKGCVA, comments:

“Growth of over nine per cent is a very positive end to our third quarter, a result we are extremely pleased with. It’s a sure sign that the gift card and voucher industry is continuing its momentum.

“Consumer sentiment towards gift cards and vouchers appears to be building momentum, and it’s great to see this spreading across multiple product types to include multi-choice products as well as category specific gift cards. Time will obviously be the test, but this is a very encouraging position to be in, in the run up to Christmas when we’re expecting bumper sales.”

Retailers to get great Christmas boost

All this fuss about Black Friday, an American import dreamed up as a marketing exercise to drum up retail sales after Thanksgiving, and it is taking root in the UK.  Retailers here are all going for it.  

Indeed consumer spending leading up to the forthcoming festive season is driven up a gear by the promotions and retailers should benefit from stronger sales this Christmas, at least that’s what business advisory firm Deloitte is predicting in a recent report.  It states that consumers will spend over 42 billion pounds this Christmas, up 4 percent on last year.  That’s around £1.5 billion more than they did last year. 

The new report released by Deloitte also  states online sales are expected to account for 13 percent of December takings, and the growing importance of click & collect will see 2.5 billion pounds in sales this Christmas ordered online and collected in-store.  At 45 percent of all online transactions, this is almost double the level seen in December 2013.

Deloitte head of retail Ian Geddes said: "Growth in the influence of digital on physical retail has been driven by consumers' desire to access information on products and services, compare prices and increasingly pay and transact via digital devices.

"Those retailers that have invested in developing apps may now find that if these are only optimised for use as a separate channel, rather than an integrated part of the shopping experience, they will not be fit for purpose."

Sales via mobile devices are expected to account for 45 percent of UK online purchases during the festive season, according to online retailers' association IMRG.

By Alan Tyler

Managing Editor, My Fashion Connect