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Top UK gift vouchers this Christmas
December 21, 2007
There a just a few shopping days left before Christmas and many people – most of them men - will be panicking about those last minute gifts. Vouchers are always a popular option and, as we pointed out earlier in the month, more people are searching for them than ever before. Whereas the earlier post focused on viral discount vouchers, the aim here is to understand search trends for more traditional gift vouchers. The table below contains the top 10 most searched for branded vouchers for the 4 weeks ending 15th December, as well as the comparable period in 2005 and 2006. Tesco has been at the top for the last three years and, although its position is boosted by people searching for discount and clubcard vouchers, the gap between the UK’s largest retailer and the others is large enough to assure us that a significant number of people are also searching for gift vouchers.
The coloured entries represent the companies that appear every year, and they highlight and interesting trend. There has been a noticeable growth in voucher searches for pure-play online retailers - particularly Apple iTunes, but also Amazon and Play.com, who are the third and fourth most popular this year despite not even appearing in the top 10 in 2005. At the same time, the traditional high street retailers have declined. HMV has clearly suffered at the hands of iTunes, Amazon and Play, while John Lewis has fallen outside of the top 10 this year despite being number 2 in 2005. The exception to the rule is Argos, which looks like being one of the big winners this Christmas: its market share of our Shopping and Classifieds category increased by 17% this week compared to last year. If the vouchers are playing a role, this may bode well for the pure play online retailers who, as we reported a couple of months ago, are starting to lose the online Christmas shopping battle with the high street stores.
While branded gift vouchers provide an interesting insight into the success of particular retailers, they are actually currently less searched for than more generic vouchers - i.e. those that are valid across a number of retailers. The table below illustrates the top 10, using the same approach as with the branded vouchers.
Currently the most search for are the uber-generic vouchers: ‘discount vouchers’, ‘high street vouchers’, ‘gift vouchers’, etc. In addition, Love2Shop vouchers are multi-store vouchers, while the importance of online vouchers is highlighted by that appearance of ‘e vouchers’ in the top 10 for the first time this year. The rise of the uber-generic voucher has also caused to a decrease in searchers for sector specific vouchers: leisure and hotel vouchers have both fallen out of the top 10 this year, while cinema and theatre vouchers are still in there but have both dropped in the rankings since 2005. However, just in case you were starting to despair that we’ve sacrificed culture at the altar of shopping, there is still hope. The granddaddy of them all, that old favourite the book token, has seen a resurgence this year, thanks in part to some very visible offline marketing.
And with that I wish you a Merry Christmas, and hope that Santa brings you all that you may desire (or at least the vouchers to buy it with). If you can rouse yourself from your turkey-induced slumber, make sure to check out the blog between Christmas and New Year for updates on the holiday shopping season.
Posted by Robin Goad at 02:00 PM
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In Categories Christmas | Retail | Search | Shopping and Classifieds
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Comments
Some great information in this roundup. The appearance of "evoucher" is an interesting trend, but of course it's not clear whether people are searching for "discount" or "gift" style vouchers when they search for "evoucher".
Posted by Edwin | December 22, 2007 10:12 AM
Gigi, I think the differences here are down nationality. In the UK, 'voucher' can be used to refer to both a money off coupon, or a gift voucher (what in the US would be called a gift card).
Thanks, Robin
Posted by Robin Goad | December 27, 2007 02:54 PM
hi,
thanks for sharing!!!!!!!!!
we at blog.giftex.in share thoughts about corporate gift ideas
Posted by neha | March 18, 2008 10:35 AM
what's the difference between a voucher and coupon?
Posted by gigi | December 21, 2007 06:39 PM