FMCG talked to Ezi-Pay marketing manager Petra Davidson about the latest trends in gift cards.

Internationally, gift cards now stand out as a leading contributor to sales and profit within supermarkets.

In New Zealand, gift cards are an emerging retail category showing all the signs of following international trends by doubling sales year on year.

For the past several years, the USA’s National Retail Association survey has found gift cards to be the most requested gift for Christmas. This year, an Ezi-Pay survey has revealed similar trends, with a massive 84% of those surveyed indicating they would like a gift card for Christmas. Ezi-Pay’s offering in New Zealand supermarkets includes:

• Mobile top-ups from Vodafone, Telecom, 2degrees and Digicel*.

• Phone cards from the leading phone card suppliers Compass, Telecom, TelstraClear and CardCall.

• Gift cards from iconic New Zealand retailers such as The Warehouse, Mitre 10, Paper Plus, Liquorland, Noel Leeming, Hunting & Fishing and dozens more.

• Music gift cards including the world’s largest selling gift card iTunes.

• Game cards including Zynga, supplier of Facebook’s very popular FarmVille, CityVille, Cafe World, Sony PlayStation, Nexxon (launching soon), the Ultimate Game Card, Moshi Monsters and virtual reality game IMVU.

Davidson says: “Game cards are all recent arrivals to Foodstuffs supermarkets and are quickly gaining traction, with Zynga (Facebook’s most popular games such as FarmVille, CafeWorld and FrontierVille) proving to be our most popular card.

“Smart phones and tablets are having a major impact on gaming, with players no longer restricted to how, when and for how long they interact with online games.”

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the revenue from games that can be played online or on a mobile device is estimated to jump 50% to US$32.6 billion by 2013, overtaking console games for the first time.

In New Zealand, the gaming industry is worth approximately $170 million with 91% of New Zealanders aged 6 to 15 years and 43% of those over the age of 50 years participating in some form of online game**.

“The ability to promote and market game cards in-store has also opened up online games to a wider audience,” says Davidson.

She adds: “Console boxes and hardware can be easily marketed by retailers, however, until recently, online games have had no physical presence in the real world and therefore have had to rely on the internet or word of mouth to promote themselves.

“Now, prepaid game cards offer retailers the opportunity to participate in this booming market, by providing a physical point of sale (POS) for online games in-store.”

As the popularity of online gaming grows, the demand for prepaid game cards is also rising as consumers look for safe, simple and secure payment alternatives. Prepaid game cards allow players to avoid the use of their credit card online, as well as permit people without credit cards, such as teenagers and younger children, to load value onto their accounts without having to access their parents’ credit cards.

New to Ezi-Pay’s gift card line up is the Pharmacy Gift Card, which can be redeemed in over 250 Unichem, Amcal, Life and Radius Pharmacies as well as Care Chemists throughout the country. The new Restaurant Gift Card, redeemable in hundreds of eateries nationwide is proving extremely popular, as is the brand new GrabOne Gift Card.

“Coming soon to Ezi-Pay’s Gift Station are the Liquor Gift Card and Nexxon, with many more game card titles expected to arrive over the coming months,” says Davidson.

“Mobile top-up continues to be the prepaid category mainstay while phone cards continue to contribute well to retailers’ earnings. Phone cards are an ideal budgeting and savings tool in a tight economy and sales remain strong,” explains Davidson.

*Digicel is one of the largest mobile phone operators in the Pacific region. Top-ups purchased in New Zealand are used to top up Digicel prepaid mobile phone accounts in Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Top-ups are credited in the local currency, at the day’s best exchange rate without deducting any fees. Digicel offers very keen calling rates so the average top-up value delivers hours worth of calling to the recipient, allowing them to keep in touch with friends and family in New Zealand as well as within the islands.

**Findings of National Research prepared by Bond University for the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association in 2010.