Gift cards are becoming a bridge between Australian loyalty balances and household purchases, according to Blackhawk Network’s 2026 country research. Its report, made available on June 25, found that 35% of surveyed shoppers had used loyalty points to pay for gift cards in the preceding year. [S01] [S02]
That finding gives the industry a more specific commercial signal than a general preference for giving cards as presents. It identifies a funding route: value earned in one programme becomes purchasing power redeemable elsewhere.
A substantial personal-use market
Why Australian shoppers buy gift cards
Buying purposes reported in BHN’s Australian country summary of its 2026 global research.
%
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
Source
These are survey responses, not shares of transaction value. The wider study included 1,226 Australian adults; the public summary does not give a separate base for this question.
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| Category | Reported shopper responses |
|---|---|
| For gifting only | 61% |
| For personal use only | 19% |
| For both purposes | 20% |
The split between gifting and personal use changes the purchasing occasion. A card bought for somebody else competes with other presents. One bought for the shopper’s own use may compete with cash, an ordinary card payment or another way to redeem accumulated points.
For a retailer, those transactions can look similar at redemption while originating from different commercial relationships. A loyalty-funded purchase may involve a programme operator and distributor before the consumer reaches the checkout. The research does not identify the resulting margins or settlement arrangements.
Why BHN studies Australian behaviour
BHN’s Australian business connects brands with own-brand card sales, third-party retail distribution and corporate purchasing. Its local product materials describe services extending from production and merchandising to marketing and programme risk management. It is therefore both a source of consumer research and a supplier seeking demand for gift-card infrastructure. [S04]
That position explains its interest in a market beyond seasonal presents. More personal-use occasions can broaden the situations in which a retailer’s stored value is purchased. Loyalty redemption offers another channel through which a brand may reach customers without waiting for a birthday or holiday.
The later public summary also locates that demand within distribution channels: 64% reported buying gift cards in-store from a retailer offering multiple brands, and 27% from a multi-brand website. The channels can overlap. These responses help explain a distributor’s commercial interest, but do not measure BHN’s own sales or share. [S02]
Multi-brand gift-card purchase channels in the Australian survey
Reported channel use, supplied in the July 22 country summary.
percent of respondents
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
Source
Potentially overlapping channels, not a partition of purchases or transaction value. The wider Australian sample was1,226adults; question-specific base and uncertainty are not supplied. No BHN market share is implied.
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| Category | Reported responses |
|---|---|
| Multi-brand retailer, in-store | 64 percent of respondents |
| Multi-brand website, online | 27 percent of respondents |
For the loyalty operator, gift cards provide a recognisable use for earned points. For a participating brand, they direct redeemed value toward its products or services. These are features of the distribution model, not proof that the programme creates additional spending rather than replacing a purchase the customer would have made anyway.
What the country findings can support
The public Australian summary, issued on July 22, identifies 1,226 adults within a 24-country survey conducted in January and February. It reports that 90% belonged to at least one loyalty programme. These are respondent measures, not the share of Australian retail expenditure passing through gift cards. [S02]
The report belongs to BHN’s wider global research programme but is presented as a separate Australian publication. That country view matters because a familiar redemption brand and a useful reward denomination depend on the market in which a customer shops. [S03]
The operational opportunity is to connect rewards that people have accumulated with places they want to spend. The tradeoff is that a gift card usually narrows where value can go. A loyalty customer exchanging points is choosing that restriction in return for a particular redemption option.
BHN’s findings establish reported behaviour and purchasing purposes. They do not by themselves quantify incremental merchant sales, unused balances or the cost of running a loyalty conversion programme. Those measures would be needed to turn a consumer preference into a financial case for a particular retailer.
BHN’s explanation of choice likewise rests on stated reasons. The July summary reports recipient need at 45%, budget control at 40% and avoiding waste at 30%. Those are reasons respondents gave for selecting gift cards, rather than measured savings, avoided waste or incremental retailer profit. [S02]
Reported reasons for choosing gift cards in Australia
Stated purchase motivations; exact question-level base is not supplied.
percent of respondents
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
Source
Responses are not a single-choice spending distribution. No actual household savings, waste reduction, merchant margin or causal effect was measured in these percentages. January-February fieldwork; July 22 public summary.
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| Category | Reported responses |
|---|---|
| Recipient need | 45 percent of respondents |
| Budget control | 40 percent of respondents |
| Avoiding waste | 30 percent of respondents |
In this article
Oliver Reed
Oliver Reed covers industry acquisitions, investment and market research for Gift Card News.