Tremendous has put the difficulty of paying international research participants at the centre of its latest industry research. Findings published on March 31, 2026 identify currency conversion and limited local reward options as prominent problems. Those are also problems the company sells a platform to solve. [S01]
The study covers user-experience research teams surveyed in the fourth quarter of 2025. Retail gift cards were offered by 72% of respondents and prepaid cards by 64%. The chart records reported difficulties, not failed-payment rates. Categories can overlap. [S01]
Where research teams report friction
Reported challenges in global research incentives
Approximate respondent shares in the company’s Q4 2025 survey.
%
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
Source
Sample size and sampling method are unspecified. Categories overlap. These figures describe reported difficulties, not payment-failure rates or a representative industry estimate.
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| Category | Respondents citing challenge |
|---|---|
| Currency conversion | 55% |
| Local reward availability | 48% |
| Tax and regulatory issues | 42% |
| Delivery-channel limitations | 34% |
| Fraud risk | 30% |
The company does not specify the sample size, recruitment method or weighting in the published account. Its percentages therefore describe the respondents, without establishing a representative estimate for the entire research industry. The findings do not compare provider performance or measure a return on switching suppliers. [S01]
The business behind the survey
Tremendous supplies a payouts platform for organisations paying research participants and other recipients. Its research product combines bulk or automated sending, recipient choice, delivery records, support and fraud controls. It offers integrations with research tools, placing the payment operation inside an existing study workflow. [S02]
The commercial model is different from a conventional software subscription. Tremendous says it earns money through partnerships with some reward brands. Platform access has no subscription fee, while certain monetary payout routes carry charges. A free account consequently does not mean every payout route has identical economics. [S03]
This gives the survey a clear commercial purpose: it describes a fragmented operating problem that a combined delivery and redemption service is designed to address. That connection does not invalidate the findings. It does mean the research should be read alongside the supplier's product proposition, rather than as an independent endorsement of it.
Current pricing makes those different economics explicit. On October 18, the public schedule listed gift cards, prepaid cards and donations at face value, while monetary routes such as wallets and bank transfers may incur a 4-6% sending fee. Credit-card funding may add a separate 3% processing fee. These are later published terms, not measured survey costs or a reconstruction of March pricing. [S03]
Published sending-fee ranges by reward route
Current advertised fee schedule observed October 18, 2026.
% of reward value
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Source
Quoted range bounds, not average fees or universal customer quotes. Monetary routes may incur4-6%; volume terms can vary. Credit-card funding may separately incur3%. These current terms are not asserted as March 2026 pricing.
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| Category | Lower quoted rate | Upper quoted rate |
|---|---|---|
| Gift cards, prepaid cards and donations | 0 % of reward value | 0 % of reward value |
| Monetary routes when fees apply | 4 % of reward value | 6 % of reward value |
Why usable rewards matter more than a delivery receipt
For the research buyer, the incentive is part of the cost of obtaining a usable interview or response. Sending a reward is not the same as completing that obligation. An incentive that arrives but cannot be spent locally may require a replacement, support time or a different payment route.
Our reading is that the strongest business case is operational: fewer separate supplier relationships and less work resolving individual payouts could leave more of a study budget available for research. Those are potential gains to investigate, not savings demonstrated by the survey. They depend on the countries involved, the chosen reward and the total fees charged.
The platform's own description makes localisation concrete. It supports local reward choices, language adaptation and currency handling rather than simply emailing the same card to every recipient. Those functions explain how an intermediary can earn a place between a research organisation and a reward brand. They do not establish that one platform is cheapest in every market. [S02]
The survey’s provider-selection priorities support that operational reading: participant experience was cited by 60%, easy administration by 54%, global coverage by 52%, security and compliance by 48%, and value for money by 38%. These are overlapping reported priorities. They do not show which platform actually delivered the best result or how much a buyer saved. [S01]
Reported priorities when choosing an incentive platform
Reported provider-selection priorities in the Q4 2025 UX research survey.
%
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
Source
Overlapping choices; no disclosed sample size, country distribution, weighting or question-level bases. Stated priorities, not a ranking of actual providers, measured cost savings or completed research outcomes.
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| Category | Reported share |
|---|---|
| Participant experience | 60% |
| Easy administration | 54% |
| Global coverage | 52% |
| Security and compliance | 48% |
| Value for money | 38% |
A commercial return still needs to be established.
The evidence to watch is the cost per completed, usable research response, including support, replacement payments and fraud losses. A buyer would also need claim and redemption information where available, not just a record that a message was sent.
For Tremendous, winning those workflows can expand payout activity through its platform. For participating gift-card brands, selection can bring funded spending commitments. Neither incremental revenue nor improved research participation is quantified by this release. The announcement identifies an addressable problem; the business outcome still depends on execution.
In this article
Oliver Reed
Oliver Reed covers industry acquisitions, investment and market research for Gift Card News.