Gift card sales appear to be making a strong recovery after a trying 2020. Annual sales across restaurant segments fell by nearly 32% in 2020 when compared to 2019. Data from 2021 shows a total reversal of that trend, with sales rebounding to 91% of their 2019 numbers during May and June.
The report includes the following key findings:
- May and June gift card sales in 2021 rebounded to 91% of 2019 sales after significant losses in 2020
- Fine dining gift cards saw a 22% increase in average load amount over 2020
- Redemption rate fell nearly 5% among cards sold in 2019, likely because of the pandemic.
Designed to identify the latest trends in restaurant gift card sales and help restaurant marketing executives compare results to others in the industry, use trends for planning inventory, and gain insight into how channel sales contribute to the growth of gift card sales programs, the Paytronix Gift Card Sales Report analyzed more than 190 restaurant brands' stored value program data. The restaurant service types included in the data set are multiunit quick-service, fast-casual, casual dining, and fine dining. The report provides a comparison of sales by channel, including in-store, third-party retail, and corporate sales. All data is sourced from gift card sales processed by Paytronix between January 1, 2018, and June 30, 2021.