Gift Vouchers

Although it still seems a while away, soon enough it will be time to start the Christmas planning process once more. Many of us will struggle to think of and find that perfect gift while the rest of us will rely on the good ole faithful gift voucher. So what’s the history behind this present saviour?

The first voucher was issued in 1932 - The Book Token

In 1936 The Boots Gift Token were launched and then later re-named Boots Gift Vouchers. In the early 1960’s saw the start of the consumer incentive with the introduction of the Green Shield Stamps. As sales began to slow, the original Green Shield stamp catalogue shops from which shoppers could select their well earned gifts which they had saved hard for, were re-branded Argos in July 1973

In 1972 the bonus bond gift voucher was the first ‘multi retailer’ gift voucher acquired by Grass Roots in 1982 but a couple of years later in 1974 Bemrose Booth produced Littlewoods Vouchers.

The 1980's saw the majority of high street retailers have a gift voucher scheme. High Street Vouchers launched multi-redemption vouchers targeted towards Christmas Savings. Customers could redeem these at Woolworths, Dixons, John Collier, Dewhurst and Cordon Blue.  The vouchers on offer today have over 75 retailers and 19,000 stores nationwide. Luncheon Vouchers produced in 1982 by Bemrose Booth were used at 200million per year. In 1983 the High Street Vouchers enter the Business-to-Business market. The first Theatre Token was launched in 1984 purely covering Theatres in the West end. It now covers over 235 theatres in the UK.

In 2000, Argos Business Solutions launched the first electronic Gift card in the B2B market called ‘A-Card’. This product is still around today and can be used to collect points which in turn can be spent on a vast range of items within Argos and / or Homebase stores. Four years later the High Street Voucher was re-branded to Love2Shop and coincided with the launch of Love2play and Love2travel. Now B2B sales of gift vouchers have reached 45% of the total market spend.

For a novel Christmas or birthday present, get an Iron Maids voucher! Contact us on 01622 870111, 01233 779009 or via iron-maids.co.uk