Dining Out is Back for 2022 Says Paytronix Restaurant Gift Card Sales Report

Restaurant gift card data indicates that sales have bounced back from pandemic low

• Gift card sales at sit-down restaurants on the rise

• E-gift sales highest ever

• Overall 2021 restaurant card sales up 22% over 2020

Paytronix Systems, Inc., the most advanced digital guest experience platform, published the Paytronix Restaurant Gift Card Sales Report 2022, which finds that 2021 card sales were up significantly over 2020 sales but still below pre-pandemic levels. The big winners are restaurants that specialize in on-premises dining, such as those in the family and fine-dining categories. The data also reveals a major shift to e-gifting.

Overall, people bought 22% more restaurant gift cards in 2021 than they did in 2020, but still 13% less than they purchased in 2019, demonstrating more room to grow in the pandemic recovery. Sales in the family-dining category shot up 106% when compared to 2020, while fine dining saw a 57% jump, demonstrating a pent-up demand for a return to on-premises dining.

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While the total overall number of gift cards sold in 2021 increased year over year, other trends, such as per-card spending, remained relatively consistent when compared with previous years.

Digital card sales in 2021 were the highest they’ve been in the years included in this report. Sales were driven by the purchase of e-gift cards, particularly for fine-dining restaurants. On average, load of stored value was higher on e-gift cards than physical cards for all service types, except for quick-service restaurants (QSRs).

“We continue to watch a shift to e-gift and the role it plays in a complete guest experience. The rise of mobile apps, combined with loyalty programs that include such offerings as subscriptions and payments, along with rewards points, creates a much more frictionless guest experience,” said Andrew Robbins, founder and CEO of Paytronix Systems, Inc. “When all the pieces come together, they bring guests back more often, help them purchase more, and increase their long-term customer lifetime value.”

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Other findings in the report include:

• Holidays Drove Purchasing – The holiday selling period accounted for slightly more than 45% of all card sales, 14% more than in 2020. Overall sales in that period were up 33.9% over 2020, but still down 6% from 2019.
• Load per Card – The average dollar amount loaded onto each card across all cards has remained consistent since 2019, even amid 2020’s total overall sales losses. However, fine-dining restaurants were the exception, seeing a 22% jump in average card load over 2019.
• Sales by Service Type – In addition to the increases in family and fine-dining sales, casual restaurants also proved popular, with a slightly smaller but respectable year-over-year increase of 28%. QSRs saw the smallest losses from 2019 to 2020 but grew by only 7% in 2021.
• Sales by Channel – Corporate sales were up, while third-party sales and in-store sales made gains in 2021 but were still down 19% and 14%, respectively, from 2019. Third-party sales in 2021, while still below 2019 levels, saw the sharpest rebound from 2020.