Some interesting insights have come out from National Gift Card (NGC), one of North America’s largest gift card technology companies, in its annual B2B gift card report.

It seems that when it came to programme type, loyalty and reward agencies have led the charge significantly, making 39 percent of the total annual spend. Employee Benefit companies came in second place, with Healthcare and Wellness and Mobile App companies close behind. On top of that, this is the fourth consecutive year that the big box category (superstores for us in the UK) have topped the list of reward categories, with 30 percent of the total redemption volume in gift card programmes overall.

In addition to the standard category statistics on gift card redemptions in B2B programs, NGC reports that the majority of U.S. participants who earn a reward from their employer or loyalty program choose to receive a physical gift verses a digital one (87 percent select physical cards over digital when given the choice).

“There is still an incredibly strong demand for people who want to hold their tangible reward and/or don’t quite trust digital gift card redemption yet,” said National Gift Card President Eric Thiegs. However, he went on to say, “We anticipate the shift of those statistics towards a 50/50 mix in the next 10 years as more Gen Z and Gen Y (Millennials) are earning rewards from their B2B marketplace programs. But currently it’s the Gen X and Baby Boomers at the height of their careers or heading into retirement who are earning and redeeming the most loyalty points, and this group will undoubtedly want to see physical gift card redemption as an option in their program.”

Now is certainly the time to be thinking B2B when it comes to your programme!