New Benchmark Report on Digital Gift Card Programs Finds Merchants Continue to Improve, But Opportunities Exist Around Social Commerce and Embedded AI

April 10, 2025 at 11:00 AM EDT

Mobile Growth and Expanded Digital Delivery Fuel Enhanced Customer Experiences and Revenue Opportunities

Blackhawk Network (BHN), a leading branded payments provider, has released its eighth annual market-leading report on the gift card industry, in collaboration with NAPCO Research. Highlighting trends and best practices in U.S. digital gift card programs, this year’s report revealed U.S. merchants and organizations continue to significantly enhance and invest in their digital gift card offerings. Driven by ongoing consumer demand and strategic innovation, merchants are prioritizing improvements to capture greater market share and enhance customer experiences.

“Digital gift cards are a rapidly expanding segment, representing nearly 43% of the total U.S. gift card market,” said Jay Jaffin, chief marketing officer at BHN. “Merchants are actively responding to that growth and overall consumer demand by investing in innovative, digital-first solutions that simplify the customer experience. Improvements in mobile delivery, personalization through AI, and increased payment flexibility reflect the industry's commitment to meeting consumers exactly where and how they prefer to shop.”

In assessing the complete digital gift card experience, analysts evaluated the buyer and recipient experience, purchasing digital gift cards from each merchant and organization evaluated. For the 2025 evaluation, 100 merchants were selected across 17 verticals and evaluated based on 126 unique criteria. The resulting report offers a comprehensive view and benchmark of the progress and areas for growth in consumer gift card purchase and recipient experiences.

Key findings from the 2025 report include:

Mobile growth accelerates merchant innovation: Mobile web experiences improved by 9% year-over-year, supported by expanded delivery options like SMS and direct-link sharing, and increased flexibility in payment methods, streamlining the purchase process.

Mobile apps drive standout merchant performance: Retailers investing in mobile apps, especially those optimizing marketing and usability within apps, demonstrated stronger overall performance. Additionally, incorporating AI-driven recommendations is an underutilized strategy, with only 5% of merchants adopting it despite strong consumer interest.

Consumer electronics and office stores emerge as top digital performers: Consumer electronics and office stores emerged as the top-performing verticals, achieving an average digital score of 92%. These verticals excelled due to exceptional discoverability, flexible gifting options, and strong integration with consumer preferences.

Social commerce and promotions present untapped opportunities: Merchants averaged scores of just 2% for social media marketing and 33% in using gift cards within promotions, highlighting a significant opportunity to improve awareness and sales through digital marketing channels.

The 2025 report introduces expanded criteria assessing digital gift card delivery methods beyond traditional email, including SMS and direct-link sharing. Additionally, the consumer electronics vertical was evaluated for the first time. A significant update for this year was the shift to exclusively digital evaluation criteria, reflecting consumers' growing preference for digital solutions.

The full 2025 report provides average scores for industry categories in addition to overall US data and insights to help retailers assess the strengths and opportunities for their own gift card programs and prioritize areas for investment.

About Blackhawk Network (BHN)

Today, through BHN’s single global platform, businesses of all kinds can tap into the world’s largest network of branded payment solutions. BHN helps businesses grow revenue, increase loyalty, motivate and reward their teams, disburse funds and engage consumers. Branded payment solutions include the issuance and distribution of gift cards, eGifts, corporate payouts and rewards, along with the technology to deliver these products in seamless, integrated ways. BHN’s network spans the globe with more than 400,000 consumer touchpoints. Learn more at BHN.com.