The gift card market at Christmas

Unsurprisingly, Christmas remains the key moment of the year for gift cards. Many brands’ programmes record exceptional volumes, confirming that gift cards remain one of the top three gifts preferred by French consumers. They are no longer a secondary product: they have become a structuring lever — transactional, marketing-driven and relational.

But the 2025 season confirms an even clearer shift: Christmas is no longer a period of pure commercial euphoria, but a season of optimisation. Consumers are not giving up on gifting, but they are making more deliberate trade-offs. They are buying more often online, looking more actively for promotions, prioritising useful gifts and spreading their spending across smaller baskets to preserve the Christmas ritual without letting their budget spiral.

In this context, gift cards occupy a particularly strong position. They address several consumer tensions at once: giving without getting it wrong, controlling budget, leaving the choice to the recipient, buying easily online and having an effective solution available right up to the final days before Christmas. For brands, this means one thing: this lever can no longer be managed on instinct. It is now essential to adopt a more precise, more segmented and deeply performance-driven approach.

French E-Commerce at Christmas 2025: Key Insights

In 2025, French consumers spent an average of around €491 on Christmas across all categories, a slightly lower budget than in 2024. Gifts remained the leading area of expenditure, with the average gift budget estimated at between €297 and €323, depending on the survey. But the real shift lies elsewhere: the number of gifts reached around 9 per person, compared with around 7 previously. In other words, French consumers are still giving gifts, but they are buying more of them at lower price points.

Christmas 2025 therefore confirms a more rationalised pattern of consumption. Households are trying to preserve the magic of the festive season while keeping tighter control over their spending. Around 75% say they are monitoring their budget, 47% are prioritising useful gifts and 45% are looking for good deals or promotions.

E-commerce continues to play a central role in Christmas preparation. Around 78% of consumers say they use the internet for their Christmas shopping, with an average online budget estimated at €291. Digital is not fully replacing stores, but it is increasingly shaping the journey: idea research, price comparison, review consultation, stock availability checks, online purchasing, click & collect and in-store visits.

The issue is therefore no longer “e-commerce versus stores”, but omnichannel orchestration. Stores remain dominant in retail, but they need to be connected to digital behaviours: online search, stock availability, fast collection, simplified returns, mobile journeys and local visibility.

Black Friday also confirms its role as the true starting point of Christmas. In 2025, around 70% of consumers say they use it to anticipate their gift purchases, compared with around 65% in 2024 and 62% in 2023. The Christmas season therefore no longer starts in December: it is prepared from November onwards, through a multi-wave approach — warm-up, Black Week, early December, last-minute shopping, then e-gift cards as the final fallback option.

Gift categories remain relatively stable, with a few notable shifts. The top online purchase intentions for Christmas 2025 are still led by games and toys at 47%, followed by beauty and fragrances at 40%, fashion, apparel and footwear at 39%, and cultural products at 35%. These categories have one thing in common: they are highly giftable, easy to showcase, compatible with broad price ranges and well suited to digital purchasing.

Another important signal is that consumers are increasingly looking for gifts that are useful, flexible or lower-risk. This directly benefits gift cards, vouchers, experience boxes, subscriptions, refurbished products and second-hand items. The gift card is therefore becoming a format perfectly aligned with Christmas 2025 behaviours: it reassures the purchaser, gives freedom to the recipient and makes it possible to stay within a precise budget envelope.

Sources: Fevad / Toluna Harris Interactive, Cofidis / CSA, INSEE, Banque de France, URSSAF, Buybox Christmas 2025 figures.

Christmas 2025 in the United Kingdom: Cautious Spending and Value-Driven Shopping

The UK Christmas 2025 season showed moderate growth on paper, but a much more cautious reality in volume. Consumers were expected to spend around £24.6 billion on presents and festive celebrations, up 3.5% versus 2024. However, with inflation running at a similar level, this increase largely reflected higher prices rather than stronger consumption. The average UK adult spend rose to approximately £461, with food, drink, Christmas dinner, health and beauty among the main priorities.

November trading was subdued, as many consumers delayed purchases while waiting for Black Friday, post-budget clarity and stronger discounts. December also remained soft for retailers: sales growth slowed, non-food struggled, and many shoppers appeared to hold out for Boxing Day and January sales. Mild weather further weighed on categories such as fashion, especially seasonal items like coats and boots.

Consumer behaviour was increasingly hybrid and selective. A third of Britons shopped mostly or entirely online, while another third split their Christmas shopping between online and physical stores. Timing also remained spread out: many shoppers started early, but a significant share only completed their gift buying after mid-December.

In summary, the UK market confirms three key trends:

• A consumer more focused on value, discounts and useful gifts.
• A highly hybrid shopping journey, balancing online convenience with store-based reassurance.
• A strategic role for late-season visibility, last-minute gifting and post-Christmas activation.

Christmas 2025 in the United States: A Record Holiday Season Powered by Digital, Mobile and Gift Cards

The 2025 holiday season was particularly resilient in the United States. Retail sales grew by around 4.1% between November 1st and December 31st, landing near the top of NRF’s forecast and confirming the strength of holiday spending despite economic caution. Consumers continued to prioritize gifts and seasonal purchases, even while remaining selective and price-conscious.

Digital commerce reached a new milestone. Online holiday spending hit $257.8 billion, up 6.8% year-over-year, making 2025 the first quarter-trillion-dollar online holiday season. Mobile continued to dominate the digital journey, accounting for 56.4% of online holiday spending. Buy Now Pay Later also kept growing, reaching $20.0 billion over the season, while AI-driven traffic to retail sites surged dramatically as consumers used generative AI tools to compare, discover and decide.

Gift cards remained one of the strongest holiday categories. NRF estimated total gift card spending at $29 billion, with 43% of shoppers planning to buy at least one. Their appeal was clear: gift cards are convenient, fast to purchase, flexible for the recipient and well suited to a shopping environment shaped by value-seeking and last-minute decisions.

In summary, the US market confirms three key trends:

• A highly mature digital and mobile-first holiday market.
• A consumer willing to spend, but increasingly strategic and deal-oriented.
• A major role for gift cards as a practical, flexible and high-value gifting format.

Christmas 2025 in Italy: Tradition, Budget Control and Omnichannel Adoption

Italy’s Christmas 2025 season remained strongly rooted in tradition, but under clear budget pressure. Gift-giving continued to be important, with around 81.5% of Italians planning to buy Christmas presents, slightly above 2024. Average gift spend was estimated between €204 and €211 per person depending on the source, showing a market that remains active but highly sensitive to household expenses.

Consumers prioritized useful, familiar and emotionally meaningful gifts. Food and wine products, beauty and personal care, fashion, footwear and sports items were among the most popular categories. At the same time, rising costs around food, household expenses and festive meals pushed consumers to make more deliberate choices. The “tredicesima”, or 13th-month salary, continued to play an important role, but was also split between gifts, bills, household expenses and savings.

Shopping behaviour remained strongly omnichannel. Two out of three Italians were expected to combine physical stores and online channels, while almost a quarter still planned to buy exclusively in traditional stores. This confirms the enduring role of local retail and in-person shopping rituals, alongside growing expectations for digital convenience, reliable delivery and mobile-first services.

In summary, the Italian market confirms three key trends:

• A strong emotional attachment to Christmas gifting and local retail.
• A cautious consumer looking for useful, meaningful and budget-controlled purchases.
• A growing omnichannel model, where digital services complement rather than replace physical shopping.

Christmas 2025 in Germany: Price Sensitivity, Stability and the Strength of Gift Vouchers

Germany’s Christmas 2025 season was defined by caution and price sensitivity. The HDE expected retail sales of €126.2 billion across November and December, up 1.5% nominally versus 2024. However, adjusted for prices, this represented flat growth. The online channel was more dynamic, with expected holiday sales of €22.2 billion, up 3.3% nominally and 2.3% in real terms.

Consumers remained financially careful. Retailers widely anticipated restrained behaviour, with 80% expecting cautious shoppers and 83% expecting stronger price sensitivity. Average gift spend fell to €263 per person, €34 less than in 2024. This reflects a market where consumers are still celebrating Christmas, but with tighter control over budgets and a stronger focus on value.

Gift vouchers and gift cards stood out as the most popular Christmas gift in Germany in 2025, ahead of toys, books, stationery, cosmetics and personal care. This makes Germany a particularly mature market for gift cards: the challenge is less about explaining the concept and more about increasing visibility, trust, omnichannel usability and distribution reach.

In summary, the German market confirms three key trends:

• A cautious but stable Christmas retail season.
• A highly price-sensitive consumer looking for practical, low-risk gifts.
• A particularly strong fit for gift cards and vouchers, already deeply embedded in gifting habits.

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Gift Cards at Christmas 2025: A Strategic Engine, Not Just a Product

The Consumer Gift Card Channel

A Seasonal Staple

Gift cards remain strongly embedded in Christmas shopping habits. In 2025, the period accounted for 44% of annual sales through the direct-to-consumer service, an increase of more than 5 points compared with Christmas 2024.

Sales remain highly concentrated at the end of the period: 53% of Christmas gift card sales take place during the final week. This confirms the dual role of the gift card: it is often a planned purchase, but one that is postponed until the last moment, as well as an effective fallback solution when shoppers are short on ideas or time. In fact, 77% of purchasers say they plan their purchase, even though some wait until the final days to complete it.

Gift cards therefore remain a last-minute purchase, but not necessarily an improvised one.

In terms of value, the average face value reached €62 at Christmas 2025, compared with €68 in 2024 and €65 across the rest of the year. This slight decline confirms a trend already observed since Christmas 2023: consumers are exercising greater control over the amount they give. Across all sectors, the most frequently purchased denominations remain €50, €30 and €100.

Black Friday: the first accelerator of gift card sales

Black Friday remains a decisive commercial moment.

At Christmas 2025, it accounted for around 32% of gift card sales in November.

Some verticals perform particularly well from this period onwards:

Tourism: 43.84% of November sales
Culture / High-Tech: 39.63%
Apparel & Accessories: 35.13%

This figure confirms that Christmas is increasingly won earlier in the season.

Brands that wait until December to activate their gift card often arrive too late.

The right approach is to manage November as a pre-conversion phase.

This means working on visibility, partner campaigns, inspirational content, CRM reactivation, B2B / employee benefit offers and the promotion of recommended denominations.

The e-gift card: still central to last-minute purchases

In the direct-to-consumer channel, the e-gift card remains the clear winner of the festive season.

Easy to personalise, instantly delivered and compatible with mobile usage, it has become the go-to solution for late purchases.

With 53% of Christmas sales concentrated in the final week, the performance of a gift card programme depends directly on the visibility of the e-gift card during the last few days.

This requires a dedicated Christmas page, access from the menu, strong visibility in the internal search engine, a presence in the footer, last-minute email campaigns, social ads, mobile wallet compatibility and reassuring messages about instant delivery.

At the crossroads between logistical efficiency and emotional urgency, the e-gift card ticks every box for last-minute shoppers.

Provided it is properly promoted.

A gift card that remains invisible in the final days of December is a missed opportunity.

Managing Christmas gift card performance through top-up payments

The performance of a gift card programme is no longer measured only by the amount sold, but by what the card triggers when it is redeemed.

At Christmas 2025, 53% of redeemed gift cards generated a top-up payment, compared with 49% in 2024. The average top-up amount reached €82, up from €66 the previous year. Gift cards are therefore increasingly acting as a lever for additional basket value.

Some verticals stand out particularly strongly. In luxury, the average top-up payment reached €467.41, showing that gift cards can trigger premium purchases. Sports recorded the most balanced momentum, with growth across face value, Christmas share, top-up amount and top-up rate. Home & Décor also retains strong potential, with 70% of redeemed cards generating a top-up payment.

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The Corporate Gift Card Channel

On the corporate side, the gift card service remained stable at Christmas 2025: it accounted for 23% of annual B2B sales, compared with 24% in 2024. Orders were mainly concentrated between mid-November and the first week of December.

Average order size increased in volume: around 182 cards per order, with an average face value of €80 and a total value of around €15,000. In 2024, the average was closer to 100 cards at €90. Companies are therefore ordering more cards, but with slightly lower unit values.

This dynamic confirms the HR and employee benefit use of gift cards: rewarding employees, supporting purchasing power and easily distributing a Christmas benefit. The channel is highly digitalised, with 74% digital cards and 73% of payments made by bank transfer.

The most dynamic verticals are food and mass-market retail, driven by useful and universal use cases. By contrast, fashion is losing momentum, which highlights the need to clarify its B2B value proposition: use cases, ordering journey, personalisation, thresholds and corporate messaging.

In B2B, performance therefore depends not only on the amount sold, but also on the ability to offer a simple, industrialised journey that is compatible with corporate constraints.

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Third-Party Distribution: High Leverage, High Risk

Distribution through third-party partners remains a strategic channel at Christmas, particularly through employee benefit platforms, loyalty programmes, incentive providers, marketplaces and specialist distributors.

At Christmas 2025, the average amount distributed through partners reached €67, compared with €73 in 2024. The share of Christmas sales also declined, to 37% versus 42% the previous year, which calls for closer monitoring of Q4 performance.

Usage, however, remains highly valuable: 63% of redeemed cards generated a top-up payment, compared with 56% in 2024. The average top-up fell to €49, versus €76 the previous year, but recipients are making top-up payments more often.

This channel should therefore not be viewed solely as a volume channel. It is also a media channel, capable of generating visibility through featured placements, newsletters, push notifications, thematic selections and last-minute campaigns.

Some verticals are growing strongly in value, particularly luxury, home & décor and cosmetics. But this progression must be assessed alongside commissions, which are increasing across several sectors.

Multi-distribution therefore remains a powerful lever, provided that visibility, assets, commissions, proposed denominations and top-up payments are actively managed.

Source: Buybox 2025 figures.

Christmas 2025 confirms that gift cards are no longer a simple seasonal product, but a full performance lever in their own right. Their value is now measured not only by sales volume, but also by their ability to generate incrementality through face value, top-up rate and average top-up amount. For Christmas 2026, brands will therefore need to activate them from November onwards, integrate them into CRM, manage them by channel and optimise post-purchase usage in order to turn them into a true driver of conversion and additional basket value.

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