The UAE Gift Card Market in 2026: From Presents to Digital Value

For decades, the gift card sat in an uncomplicated corner of retail. It was a substitute for cash with a little more personality: a way to give someone spending power without pretending to know exactly what they wanted. In the UAE, that familiar product is changing shape. The card itself is becoming less important than the value behind it, and the market is moving steadily from physical presentation toward digital distribution, stored balances and app-based management.

The scale of that shift is already visible. Research & Markets estimates that the UAE gift-card market will reach about US$2.43 billion in 2026, up 10.5 per cent year on year, and could expand to roughly US$3.54 billion by 2030. Regional data tells a similar story. Mordor Intelligence says e-gift cards accounted for 67.33 per cent of Middle East market value in 2025, while online channels represented 79.44 per cent of distribution. These figures do not mean that plastic cards are disappearing, but they do suggest that the centre of gravity has moved.

A product shaped by the way people already shop

The UAE is an obvious environment for this transition. Consumers are comfortable buying through apps, receiving tickets digitally, paying with phones and moving between online and physical retail without thinking of those channels as separate worlds. A digital gift card fits naturally into that behaviour. It can be purchased at the last minute, delivered immediately and stored without adding another object to a wallet or drawer.

Yet convenience is only part of the story. Digital issuance also changes the economics for businesses. A corporate buyer can distribute hundreds of rewards without managing physical inventory. A retailer can embed a gift card into an app or checkout flow. A rewards provider can automate delivery, reporting and account reconciliation. What began as a consumer gifting product is increasingly useful as business infrastructure.

Corporate rewards are becoming a major engine of demand

That shift is especially visible in employee recognition, customer incentives and promotional campaigns. Mordor Intelligence expects corporate and SME demand for gift and incentive cards in the Middle East to grow faster than individual purchasing through 2031. The attraction is easy to understand: gift cards sit somewhere between cash and merchandise. They give the recipient choice while giving the organisation more structure than an untracked cash payment.

For employers, the format can also make reward programmes easier to scale across a diverse workforce. Instead of guessing what hundreds of people might want, a company can offer a digital reward and allow the recipient to decide when and where to use it.

The overlooked problem comes after delivery

The industry has become very good at issuing value, but the consumer experience after issuance remains fragmented. A person may receive one card by email, another through an employer portal and a third as a physical voucher. Redemption instructions may be buried in a message. Partial balances may be difficult to track. Expiry dates can be forgotten.

That is where the next phase of the market becomes interesting. If gift cards are increasingly treated as persistent digital value, then the user needs better ways to organise that value. The opportunity is no longer just to sell another card. It is to help people understand what they already own, where it can be used and when it requires attention.

For Rewaly, that distinction matters. Gift cards can be one part of a broader rewards life that also includes coupons, memberships and loyalty benefits. The strongest long-term proposition may therefore be less about becoming another gift-card storefront and more about becoming the layer that makes fragmented rewards easier to manage.

The physical gift card will not vanish; there will always be occasions where presentation matters. But in the UAE, the category is clearly moving beyond presentation. Gift cards are becoming a form of digital value — and that changes both the market and the products that can be built around it.

Sources: UAE Gift Card Business — Research & Markets; Middle East Gift Card and Incentive Card Market — Mordor Intelligence