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Europe gift card business and investment report 2026 available
Friday, February 20, 2026 — 19:11:56 (UTC)
Europe Gift Card Business and Investment Report 2026: An $114.3 Billion Market by 2030 from $79.5 Billion in 2025 - Competitive Intensity Will Rise Around Wallet Distribution and Retailer Integration
Key market opportunities in the European gift card sector include transitioning to wallet-native digital gift cards, expanding third-party gift card availability at grocery checkouts, leveraging employee benefit rules for compliant voucher offerings, and consolidating digital gift card distribution platforms to enhance strategic reach.
Dublin, Feb. 20, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Europe Gift Card Business and Investment Opportunities Databook - 90+ KPIs on Gift Card Market Size, Retail & Corporate Spend, Competitive Landscape, and Consumer Demographics - Q1 2026 Update" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.
The Gift Card market in Europe is expected to grow by 7.8% on annual basis to reach US$85.8 billion in 2026. The gift card market in the region has experienced robust growth during 2021-2025, achieving a CAGR of 8.2%. This upward trajectory is expected to continue, with the market forecast to grow at a CAGR of 7.4% from 2026-2030. By the end of 2030, the Gift Card sector is projected to expand from its 2025 value of USD 79.5 billion to approximately USD 114.3 billion.
Competitive intensity will rise around wallet distribution and retailer integration. Expect more alliances between fintech apps, program managers, and gift card marketplaces as they compete for consumer entry points (app, checkout, email). Fraud capability will become a gating factor for scale. Retailers are likely to prefer partners that can demonstrate stronger activation, monitoring, and operational controls. Consolidation should continue as platforms pursue broader catalogs, multi-country coverage, and compliance-grade risk tooling.
Current State of the Market
Competition is shifting from "issuer vs issuer" to "distribution rails vs rails." In Europe, gift cards are increasingly sold and managed through platforms that connect retailers, wallets/fintech apps, and large merchant networks, so scale now depends on who controls distribution and integration with redemption rather than who simply issues cards. Fraud controls are becoming a differentiator in retailer onboarding. Industry attention is moving toward activation controls, scanning/verification, and monitoring as fraud and scam-related losses keep gift cards under operational scrutiny. Key Players and New Entrants
Global program managers / networks: Blackhawk Network (BHN) remains central in powering multi-merchant gift card distribution and program management across Europe. Digital gift card marketplaces: Platforms such as Klarna's in-app Gift Card Store (enabled via BHN) represent wallet-led distribution that can redirect demand away from retailer-owned channels. Prepaid/benefits incumbents adjacent to gifting: Players rooted in employee benefits and vouchers (e.g., Edenred, Pluxee) increasingly intersect with gifting through B2B incentives and third-party distribution requirements (API integration, fraud tooling). Recent Launches, Mergers, and Acquisitions
Wallet-led expansion into major EU markets: Klarna and BHN expanded the gift card store footprint to additional European countries (e.g., Germany and Italy), signalling intensifying competition for "where consumers buy gift cards." Platform-to-platform partnerships to widen catalog access: BHN and Recharge expanded their strategic partnership to broaden digital gift card availability across markets, reinforcing consolidation around a smaller set of scaled distribution partners. Security-tech partnerships moving closer to checkout operations: Digimarc and Honeywell partnered on solutions positioned to reduce gift card fraud and streamline retailer workflows, pointing to new entrants competing via security layers rather than catalog depth. Move gift cards from "plastic" to wallet-native passes in everyday retail journeys
UK grocers are treating e-gift cards as mobile credentials that can sit in a consumer's phone wallet and refresh their value/balance without reissuing a new code each time. For Instance, Sainsbury's explicitly supports eGift Cards in an Apple digital wallet and references automated balance refresh behaviour as part of the experience (i.e., the gift card becomes a reusable payment barcode rather than an email attachment). Retailers want gift cards to behave like other "store value" instruments (loyalty, coupons, payment tokens) to reduce lost cards, customer service queries, and checkout friction. Wallet storage also aligns with the UK shift toward app-led grocery operations (scan-and-go, digital receipts, targeted offers), where gift cards increasingly need to work seamlessly across in-store and online. Wallet-based gift cards should increase repeat usage (easier top-ups, easier retrieval at checkout) and push retailers to standardise real-time balance and transaction updates. Expect more UK merchants to treat gift cards as a persistent account-linked asset (less "one-time code"), raising expectations for security controls and customer self-serve management. Expand third-party gift card "malls" at grocery checkout to monetise demand for digital services
French discount and grocery chains are expanding third-party gift cards and prepaid top-ups at checkout (gaming, streaming, online brands), turning the gift card rack into a curated "digital services" aisle. For Instance, Lidl France partnered with epay (Euronet) to roll out gift cards and prepaid products across ~1,600 stores in France. Grocery footfall provides a high-frequency distribution channel for digital brands without physical shelf space. Retailers use third-party gift cards to add a high-turnover, low-space category that fits impulse purchase behaviour and supports basket building without changing core grocery operations. More French retailers will professionalise gift-card merchandising (assortment rotation, seasonal placement, fraud controls at activation). Expect deeper integration between issuers/distributors and retailers (e.g., store systems, activation controls, reporting) as third-party ranges scale and become a durable revenue line. Use employee benefit rules to keep vouchers "in-kind" and compliant, not cash-like
In Germany, employers continue to use vouchers and stored-value cards for Sachbezug (benefits in kind), but designs are tightening to ensure instruments meet legal definitions and don't drift into "cash equivalent." Practical market response: providers such as Pluxee position reloadable benefits cards explicitly around Sachbezug use-cases (accepted at contracted regional merchants rather than unlimited cash-style use). The rules framework is reinforced through official guidance (e.g., Germany's Ministry of Finance wage tax guidance and clarifications around what constitutes a Sachbezug vs. a cash payment). Employers want scalable, standard rewards that fit HR operations while staying within tax and compliance boundaries. Regulatory interpretation pushes voucher programs toward restricted acceptance networks and clear product purpose, limiting the "anything-money" perception. Corporate gift card programs will tilt toward controlled-loop designs (merchant networks, category constraints, clearer issuer/acceptance contracts). Providers that can evidence compliance-by-design (controls, auditability, restricted usage) will gain share in employer rewards and benefits distribution. Consolidate digital gift card distribution platforms as "prepaid rails" become strategic
Digital gift card distribution is consolidating as platforms position themselves as infrastructure for prepaid value distribution (gift cards, top-ups, digital content credit) across markets. For instance, Coda announced an agreement to acquire Recharge (headquartered in Amsterdam), explicitly framing Recharge as a European prepaid payments platform that scales digital distribution. Platforms want cross-border reach, supplier relationships (brands), and checkout distribution in one place, capabilities that are difficult to build country-by-country. A broader payments environment is also pushing more scrutiny on fraud and consumer protection, increasing the value of scaled operators with mature risk controls and partnerships. Expect more M&A and partnerships as platforms seek pan-European coverage, better pricing power with brands, and unified compliance/risk tooling. For merchants and issuers, this should simplify multi-country launches but may increase dependency on a smaller set of large intermediaries for distribution and fraud tooling. A Bundled Offering, Combining the Following 18 Reports, Covering 2,100+ Tables and 5,150+ Figures for the Gift Card Market
Europe Gift Card Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook Austria Gift Card Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook Belgium Gift Card Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook Denmark Gift Card Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook Finland Gift Card Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook France Gift Card Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook Germany Gift Card Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook Greece Gift Card Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook Ireland Gift Card Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook Italy Gift Card Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook Netherlands Gift Card Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook Norway Gift Card Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook Poland Gift Card Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook Russia Gift Card Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook Spain Gift Card Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook Sweden Gift Card Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook Switzerland Gift Card Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook United Kingdom Gift Card Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook Companies Featured
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