Research shows increased demand for egifts from Gen Z and Millennials

Forty-one percent of Gen Z consumers and 39% of Millennials surveyed purchase egifts at least once every three months, compared to 26% of Gen X consumers and 14% of Boomers. In comparison, purchase of physical gift cards is only slightly higher with 51% of surveyed Gen Z consumers and 47% of Millennials shopping for a physical card at least once every three months. Frequent egift usage by younger generations has also been impacting egift purchase of older generations, with 20% of Gen X surveyed choosing to buy egifts for their children.

Younger generations, led by Millennials, are open to using egifts as branded payment tools. The majority of Millennials surveyed (72%) have used egifts and have also tried other mobile payment solutions, including mobile apps (60%), gift card in mobile wallet (44%), and mobile wallet (42%). Gen Z consumers are not far behind with 63% of those surveyed having used egifts to make a payment. Surveyed consumers from both generations purchased four egifts over the past year for self-use compared to three physical cards, indicating a growing tendency to use digital branded payments.

Younger generations are also more frequent users of mobile commerce with 42% of Gen Z consumers and 46% of Millennials placing monthly orders on their mobile phones for delivery. Moreover, Gen Z consumers are more likely than any other generation to use the latest shopping innovations on a monthly basis or more including voice shopping (20%), pop-up stores (21%), and virtual reality shopping (17%), compared to an average of eight percent across generations.

According to the 2018 Merchant Gift Card E-Commerce Evaluation report conducted by NAPCO research and sponsored by Blackhawk, 51 out of 100 brands evaluated were found to offer both egifts and physical gift cards across desktop, mobile and mobile app.