Latest news with #Alighieri
New Statesman
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
The BBC Sounds series Stalked is thrilling and worrying
Photo by Tim Robinson/Millenium It all started with a selfie. It was 2015 and Hannah Mossman Moore, a 23-year-old graduate, had just arrived at her first London Fashion Week, bristling with excitement. Mossman Moore was interning with Alighieri, a jewellery start-up. Her job involved rubbing shoulders with models, fashion insiders and journalists. She was searching, among the hordes of well-dressed somebodies, for a cash-rich foreign buyer. And it wasn't long before she found one. Mossman Moore was introduced to an elegant Hong Kong national who seemed, to her, to be a big player in the Asian fashion market. The pair took a selfie together, and swapped contact details. This seemingly innocuous chance meeting would change her life, forever. Stalked, a ten-part podcast series on BBC Sounds, tells how Mossman Moore's life was upended after meeting the man. For most of her twenties, she was stalked by a barrage of faceless creeps: each day, she received thousands of emails, texts and messages from unknown accounts who seemed to know everything about her. These anonymous tormentors somehow knew details of her private life, her family, her job and her location. She had to change her phone number over and over again – but still the messages kept coming. Mossman Moore was the stepdaughter of the journalist Carole Cadwalladr, who joins her as the co-host of this podcast. Cadwalladr has had her own experience of vicious cyber-stalking, following her investigation of Cambridge Analytica and the weaponisation of social media in the wake of the 2016 Brexit referendum. In this thrilling yet deeply worrying series, Mossman Moore and Cadwalladr work together to uncover the stalker's identity. They are fearless in their pursuit. Using sensitive reporting of an extraordinary personal story, they highlight the shocking lack of care being taken to safeguard victims of stalking. Stalked BBC Sounds [See also: Misogyny in the metaverse] Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Related
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Libby Wadle Takes J.Crew on a Trip to Europe
LONDON — is on the move, with plans for summer pop-ups on both sides of the Atlantic and a new collaboration with the London jeweler Alighieri, known for its gold designs inspired by art and literature. One pop-up will open in Italy, with 'an American abroad' vibe, and in partnership with a hotel. The others will open in Nantucket and the Hamptons, according to the company's chief executive officer Libby Wadle, who was in the British capital this week to receive the Woman of the Year award at the World Retail Congress. More from WWD These Ugg Boots Were Made for Dancing Lingerie Label Ysé Opens First London Store on King's Road Koibird, Leslie Amon Team Up on Fruity, Fun Capsule The Italy pop-up marks a European comeback for which shut its six London stores in 2020 following a Chapter 11 filing. In an interview, Wadle said the pop-ups offer yet another platform for storytelling and a way to engage with old and new customers. is forging even more ties with Europe. This week it unveiled a limited-edition summer capsule of jewelry and embellished ready-to-wear with Alighieri, which was founded by the designer Rosh Mahtani. The collection is inspired by maritime heritage, and was made in London's Hatton Garden, which has been a jewelry-making hub since the Middle Ages. Wadle said it was Olympia Gayot, creative director of women's and kids' at who came up with the idea. 'She wears the jewelry, so it was a natural, organic partnership. It has a nautical feel, and is a summer brand associated with being at the beach. It's a season when we thrive, and there's a lot to celebrate,' she said. The collaboration, which features fish motifs, nautical cord necklaces and a white linen shirt adorned with Alighieri golden buttons, exemplifies how Wadle has been running the company. She said she encourages collaboration and wants her team to be looking outward and engaging with popular culture. 'We are not insular, we want to connect to culture and creativity — and not be daunted by it. There are a lot of great ideas out there, and we're always interested' in what's going on outside the walls of the company, she said. Asked about her goals for the company, Wadle said 'we really want to get back to a place where we are part of the story, and the culture. Wadle said still resonates with people everywhere who remember the catalogues, cashmere and laid-back tailoring that was synonymous with the brand for so long. Collaborations are a pillar of the growth strategy. Earlier this year, forged a three-year partnership with U.S. Ski & Snowboard, the longest partnership in its history. At the time, Wadle said the collaboration is meant to 'celebrate the intersection of sports, style and community at a scale that is really unprecedented for the brand.' Wadle, a longtime and Madewell executive, became CEO of Group in 2020, and was charged with navigating the company through the pandemic, reviving and reigniting Madewell's growth. Asked about how approach has changed, Wadle, who was decked in a cream barn jacket, white embellished skirt and sleek heels with an ankle strap and pointy toe, said that 15 years ago 'there was a formula to dressing.' Today, she said, personal style is so much more important and that people like to mix things up. 'We know we're not the only brand out there, but we want our pieces to have longevity, to be wardrobe workhorses. We want to be a go-to brand for people styling themselves.' She picked up the Woman of the Year award during a cocktail at Burberry's Bond Street store. Ian McGarrigle, chairman and founder of World Retail Congress, described Wadle as the latest in a list of women 'who not only lead with vision, but who also pave the way for future generations of women to thrive in this dynamic industry.' Best of WWD Salma Hayek's Fashion Evolution Through the Years: A Red Carpet Journey [PHOTOS] How Christian Dior Revolutionized Fashion With His New Look: A History and Timeline Cannes Film Festival's French Actresses Whose Iconic Style Shines on the Red Carpet [PHOTOS]
The Guardian
09-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Stalked: how a relentless campaign of online abuse came to derail one woman's life
'Hi Hannah Mossman Moore Stalking you has its benefits. Now watching your friend strip another blonde with perky tits. She's not more than 22. I have seen your tits so many times in the recording. You are late 20s now? Declining youth and saggy boobs… There is so much to learn when one just follows you around. Have you left Sri Lanka or just hiding from me? Tell me please. I will come and get you. Ciao' Hannah was 23, not long out of university, and had just landed her dream job. She was an intern with a new jewellery brand called Alighieri, and although she was being paid little more than expenses, she had been thrown into the deep end and was loving it, not least because she got to go to London fashion week. 'It had always been my dream to go,' she says. And now she was there 'as a professional', as she puts it. It felt like her first big break. She was the company's first employee and was given the task of hanging out in the 'designer showrooms', London fashion week's marketplace – a melting pot of teenage models, fashion insiders and hangers-on. Her job was to try to find the elusive white whale that every new brand was desperately chasing: buyers. The golden goose was a cash-rich foreign buyer. And as luck would have it, Hannah found one. Or maybe not luck. Although Hannah was young and in a new environment, she is also a natural extrovert: sunny, open, chatty. She'd bumped into an acquaintance, the friend of a friend, and he introduced her to his friend: a well-groomed Hong Kong national called Kin Hung. 'It was just a huge relief,' she says, 'to have proved myself.' Kin seemed to be the real deal, a big wheel with major contacts in the Asian fashion market. They posed for a selfie together and Hannah gave Kin her contact details. And that was where it all began. Though for the longest time, Hannah wasn't sure what 'it' was. Kin had VIP passes and could get into any show, magic up tables at any restaurant. For two years, he was her friend and 'mentor'. Later, without even realising how it happened, Hannah slowly found herself in a bizarre constructed reality – a fly in a spider's web of false narratives. The short version of the story is that for much of her 20s, Hannah had a stalker. Or maybe stalkers. Someone who'd gathered information on her – photos, details of her private life, jobs, family, locations – and bombarded her with abuse, threats and worse. Someone who watched her and hacked her bank account and her phone account. Her mobile phone was repeatedly cut off: she'd find herself somewhere and not be able to get home, not able to call anyone. It happened not just once but seven, or eight times. And not just her phone: her dad's was targeted too. A photo of her mother's front door was emailed to her, legal threats were sent to her brother's home, new email accounts in her name were set up to impersonate her. One of these, 'Premium Escorts', purported to be selling her sexual services. She was threatened with lawsuits and criminal action. WhatsApp groups were created by a fake Hannah in which she confessed criminal activity to friends and family. She also received threats of violence and rape. At first, she tried to deal with it alone. Eventually, she went to the police, handing over folders of evidence, pages and pages of printouts. When they finally took action, they went to arrest a suspect, found he wasn't home and gave up. Later, the police wrote to Hannah and told her they'd closed the case. 'Evidential difficulties,' they said. The stalking continued. It's now a decade on; Hannah is older and only just starting to understand what happened to her, not least because her story is now a 10-part BBC podcast, Stalked. What seems even more unbelievable, as I write these words, is that I knew Hannah all the while this was going on. To some degree, the podcast is my way of making amends. We set out to do what the police failed to even try to do: solve the crime. And thanks to the tenacity of Stalked's producers, Georgia Catt and Rob Byrne, we believe we are nearer to solving it. The motivation for doing so, at least in my case, is because of the guilt of not realising what was going on underneath my nose, even though this whole story was in many ways on my investigative patch. Hannah, I should explain, is my ex Dave's daughter, and although we'd split up many years earlier, they'd both remained in my life. We celebrate birthdays and milestones together. Dave is the honorary co-parent of my dog. The three of us share endless silly animal videos in our WhatsApp chat. At the peak of Hannah's nightmare, I'd been deep in the throes of my investigation about Cambridge Analytica, Facebook and the weaponisation of social media. I was overwhelmed, wrestling with a massive story and my own frayed nerves and security concerns, unaware that Hannah was dealing with what, in hindsight, seems like a human version of Cambridge Analytica: a malign influence in her life who was harvesting, profiling, surveilling and targeting her. So much of my work of the past decade has been about Silicon Valley surveillance. It's the underlying business model of all social media platforms: they track us – even if we're not on them – to monetise us. The whole thrust of the Cambridge Analytica story was how personal information collected for one purpose – a personality quiz – could be repurposed for another: electing Donald Trump. Yet I was oblivious to how a similar thing was happening to Hannah. How someone had her personal data – lots of it – and was twisting it and weaponising it against her. It wasn't until the second lockdown – the dreary, endless, dark, cold winter lockdown that began in England in November 2020 – when I went with Hannah for a long, looping walk around my part of north London, that it finally started to come into focus. At this point, Hannah was 28, living with her dad and attempting to set up her own jewellery business while hustling to make money: moonlighting as a barista and trying, like we all were, to get through a pandemic without losing her mind. We were walking uphill through my local park when, offhandedly, Hannah mentioned something about 'Swami'. I said: 'Swami?' – and she sort of shrugged despairingly. 'You know, Swami – he was one of the hackers, supposedly. You know, the whole online reputation management thing.' She was right: I did know about Swami and the hackers and the online reputation management thing. It had happened after a terrifying incident with Kin in Florida in which, two years after Hannah had known him, he'd allegedly become aggressive and controlling and tried to prevent her leaving. His behaviour in person and texts between them show that she was terrified and begged to leave. He claimed that his out-of-character conduct was because he'd been hacked. What happened next was deeply confusing. An entire cast of characters starting communicating with her, multiple different people, all abusive in different ways. Kin claimed these were 'the hackers' who had 'jumped' to her. Hannah had a stalker in the way that some people have a health condition; something such as lupus – uncommon, mysterious, little understood. It was a permanent feature of her life that occasionally flared into crisis but which most of the time she tried to ignore, minimise, pretend wasn't happening. That day, when there was nothing else to do but walk endlessly, I made her stop. 'Just go back to the beginning,' I said. 'And tell me the whole story.' What tumbled out in fits and starts over hours was unbelievable. It began with meeting Kin, the charming, helpful man. And somehow gradually escalated into a sophisticated campaign designed to ruin her life. It had, in part, succeeded. At one point, Hannah pulled out her phone. 'Look,' she said. There was email after email of pornographic material. Some were addressed to 'Hooker Hani' and fixated on the idea that she was a sex worker 'with a body like an over-fucked buffalo'. Some were soliciting reports of the putative clients who'd supposedly used her sexual services. Mixed in were photos of Hannah as a young student. 'I don't even know where those photos are from,' she said. There were details of her life, of her locations. Even while we were talking, another arrived. By the end of the walk, four new ones had landed in her inbox. In the jumbled relaying of the story, Hannah introduced a new character: Alice. 'It's what also happened to Alice,' she said. 'Who's Alice?' I asked. Was this another harasser? 'Alice Ruggles,' she said. Hannah explained that Alice had taken her place at her school in Leicester when Hannah's mother had accepted a teaching post abroad. 'I never knew her but she became best friends with all my best friends.' Alice had a stalker too. 'And she'd also tried and tried to get the police to help.' That help never came and she's no longer around to tell the rest of her story. In 2016, Alice's stalker murdered her. I felt a profound sense of hopelessness when Hannah finally opened up to me. The next weekend, she came around to my flat with bundles of documents. There were at least nine different characters communicating with her and between themselves. It was wildly confusing, the kind of investigation that needed time and focus and a team, and in early 2021 I had none of these. Instead, I had my own issues: a defamation lawsuit that ate my time and, even more so, my spirit. But what I landed on was an idea. I'd been blown away by a BBC podcast series called The Missing Cryptoqueen. It combined an investigation, public service journalism and vivid storytelling in a way I hadn't heard before, and Georgia Catt was the producing genius behind it. I emailed her. She sent an upbeat response, which I forwarded to Hannah, although I worried that I was getting her hopes up. Two weeks later, Hannah called me. 'You're never going to believe this.' What? 'It's stopped!' What's stopped? 'The emails. Everything. It's all just stopped dead.' A coincidence? Or had someone been in her emails? We still don't know the answer to that. A relentless campaign that had been going on for four years suddenly went silent. Stalking is the only crime where victims are meant to obtain evidence for themselves, says Rachel Horman-Brown, a solicitor who specialises in stalking. 'If you report a burglary, you don't have to present fingerprints to the police. It just doesn't happen for any other crime. And the thing is, stalking nowadays in virtually every case will involve an online element, which means there's a digital footprint, which means that it is provable. If they want to find out who's doing it, it's possible because the evidence is there. They can't be bothered, in my view.' Catt and co-producer Byrne systemised all the evidence and then found a team of forensic linguists who work for the FBI and who dusted for metaphorical fingerprints in the copious written materials. It's the same technique that was used to identify the Unabomber, and Robert Leonard, professor of linguistics at Hofstra University in New York, was able to pull out endless similarities between the apparently different styles of the various messages, suggestive of 'evidence of common ownership', meaning they were written by the same person or persons. Another data expert, Jonathan Sebire, who works for Premier League clubs identifying and managing threats against footballers, examined the data trail, which revealed In last week's episode (number six), after carefully evaluating all the evidence with the BBC's lawyers, we named the man who we have reasonable grounds to believe is the perpetrator behind it all. The man who the evidence suggests to us is every single one of these characters, who sent the rape threats and is the person behind the Premium Escorts account: Kin Hung. The charming, friendly, helpful man who Hannah met at London fashion week when she was 23. Kin denies this and adamantly denies ever stalking Hannah. 'True crime' has a mixed reputation, muckraking over salacious murders from decades ago, but Stalked is something different. Most victims of stalking and harassment do not receive any sort of help and – only in rare instances – justice. No woman should have to rely on a ragtag team of journalists for answers but that's where we are. Four years on, it no longer seems like such a coincidence that two girls from the same class at the same school would both have stalkers. Or that neither of them had been able to get the help they needed from the police. One in five women will experience stalking, according to the Office for National Statistics, and one in 11 men. It would be more unusual for a single class of schoolgirls to grow up and not to have a stalker. In the vast majority of cases, the perpetrators are never caught: only 6.6% of cases reported to the police in the year ending March 2022 resulted in a charge. Just 1.4% in a conviction. What we realised while making the podcast is that stalking is an epidemic. It's mostly invisible. It ruins lives. And it's rapidly growing, partly because there are now so many tools available to assist a would-be stalker. Most cases of stalking now involve a cyber element, and surveilling, profiling and targeting someone via legal and illegal means is both easy and common. If it's happened to you or someone you know, the first thing to realise is that you're not alone. And the second is that there's nothing you could have done differently. It's not your fault. It's that feeling of blame and shame that took Hannah so long to shake. But there was nothing she could have done. What I've come to understand is that part of the reason I hadn't realised the extent of what was going on or how badly it affected Hannah is that so much of what was happening to her was private, mediated by technology, targeted directly to her phone. And that Hannah also used technology to mask the truth. During one of the peaks of the malicious activity, she ran away to Los Angeles to stay with a friend, posting photos on her Instagram account of sunsets, cocktails, glasses of green juice. Hannah always said 'my stalker' with ironic air quotes. One of her biggest eye-rolls was towards anyone she felt was acting like a victim. It was – her words – an 'ick'. It wasn't that she was unsympathetic towards others; she just had a horror of being one herself. Hannah dreamed of being an accomplished businesswoman: having her own company, being successful, independent – the exact opposite of a victim. But Hannah was a victim. It was just something that she'd refused to acknowledge to anybody – especially herself. Even as her life unravelled and she retreated from her friends: 'I didn't know what to say to them,' she said and moved back home with her dad. 'I think she's just relieved to be here,' he told me. She felt 'such shame and embarrassment'. It's been a long and arduous process to unpick everything. Hannah has had to expose herself, hand over the passwords to her accounts, let Catt and Byrne and the lawyers trawl through her private life. We know Hannah was stalked and 'hacked', whether through technological or social methods. But we have no certainty over who or how. We don't know whether Kin is behind it all. We do believe, however, Kin is involved; the evidence is too compelling to feel otherwise. He has responded robustly through his London lawyers: Kin denies all accusations and adamantly denies ever stalking or harassing Hannah, rejecting the allegations as 'false and without foundation'. The first use case of all new technology is to weaponise it: to surveil, target, control. An estimated 96% of deepfake video is nonconsensual pornography. A not insignificant percentage of that is directed at children, girls. Eight years ago, I went with Christopher Wylie, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, to an electronics shop in Tottenham Court Road in central London, where in an upstairs room, behind a closed door, we looked at undercover filming equipment. A few months ago, I went back with Georgia and Hannah, and a salesman showed us his current range of products, which had advanced beyond recognition: spyware in all shapes and forms – all of it legal to buy. A simple white phone charger, identical to any number you'll find in your own home, was the one that I found myself marvelling at. It turned out to be a voice-activated recorder. When a conversation starts, it records, and when it ends, it automatically messages you a sound file. Technology that was once the preserve of nation states is now available to anyone for a few pounds. And then there's your personal data. Silicon Valley is itself a surveillance tool. It's what its entire economy is built on. Your personally identifiable data has been vacuumed up by shady middlemen. It's more difficult here, but in the US, private investigators use it to deliver detailed and incredibly intrusive intelligence reports in a matter of minutes. Regardless of the who and the why of it all, the effects on Hannah were profound. We laugh now about the list of numbers that I have for Hannah in my phone: Hannah – Android, Hannah – New 2017, Hannah LA, Hannah New Moby, Hannah New Number, Hannah – New 2018, Hannah (new) 2019, Hannah USA… But it's a record of a woman being hunted, in flight. For a period, she didn't have any phone at all. Making the podcast – being listened to and believed, having the support and opinion of experts – has been a life-changing experience for Hannah. She's regained control of her life, her narrative. It's been a huge privilege to see, and we're both acutely conscious of how most women don't have that opportunity. The most affecting moment in the series is when Hannah goes to meet Alice Ruggles's parents. It's so profoundly sad. Alice's calls to the police were released, and her polite, don't-want-to-make-a-fuss tone is the hardest thing to hear. 'I know this sounds crazy,' Hannah tells Sue, Alice's mother, 'but I never wanted to inconvenience him.' Sue replies: 'That's exactly what Alice said. Exactly the same.' The Metropolitan police asked Hannah for a meeting last month and apologised to her for the handling of her case. Mistakes were made, they said. They no longer issue 'first harassment warnings', which have been widely accepted to be valueless. In a statement, Commander Kevin Southworth said: 'We recognise the service the victim received between 2018 and 2020 fell short of what is expected… Since 2022, we have significantly improved our response to stalking and in the last year have investigated more cases of this nature than ever before.' I learned things, too, through the making of the podcast. It had never occurred to me that there was any overlap between Hannah's experience and my own. Hannah's privacy and peace of mind had been relentlessly shredded. She'd been targeted and abused in private: a torrent of messages, threats, intimidation and confusion sent direct to her phone. She'd been sexually shamed and exposed. She'd retreated into herself and isolated herself from friends and family. She felt despair and hopelessness. The thing is that I could have written that list about myself. Observer readers may know something of the very public online abuse I received through the years of my Brexit investigation. Hannah was shamed for being young, attractive, sexually desirable. She was a slut – 'Hooker Hani'. 'Her vagina has more STDs than a toilet bowl has germs,' the perpetrator wrote to her then boyfriend. I was shamed for being the opposite: older, childless, a 'mad cat woman', or what, in previous centuries, used to be called a witch. It's a measure of how effective these strategies are that although Hannah and I are very close, neither of us knew at the time what the other was going through. So much is internalised. The silencing is real. The first victims of all new technology are women. But they're never the last. If you want to understand what's coming down the line in the future, you need to look at what's already happening to women now. This use of technology to surveil, target, shame, bully, coercively control; it's the same technology that is now being deployed by Trump and, especially, Elon Musk against people they consider enemies. Musk more than anyone understands that data is power. We're all prey now. The first five episodes of Stalked are available on BBC Sounds
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Gift Card Market to grow by USD 1.33 Billion (2025-2029), fueled by e-commerce growth. Report on AI's role in redefining market landscape
NEW YORK, Jan. 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Report with market evolution powered by AI - The global gift card market size is estimated to grow by USD 1.33 billion from 2025-2029, according to Technavio. The market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of over 15.4% during the forecast period. Growth of e-commerce sector is driving market growth, with a trend towards rise of open-loop gift cards. However, additional loss of money in using gift cards poses a challenge. Key market players include Alighieri, Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc., Card USA Inc, Duracard Plastic Cards, Fidelity National Information Services Inc., Fiserv Inc., FleetCor Technologies Inc., Givex Corp., Hennes and Mauritz AB, InComm Payments, JIFITI PRODUCTS, Kindcard Inc., PineLabs Pvt. Ltd., Plastek Card Solutions Inc., Runa Network Ltd., Square Inc., Tele Pak Inc., TransGate Solutions, Village Roadshow Ltd., and Yiftee Inc.. Key insights into market evolution with AI-powered analysis. Explore trends, segmentation, and growth drivers- View Free Sample PDF Gift Card Market Scope Report Coverage Details Base year 2024 Historic period 2019 - 2023 Forecast period 2025-2029 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 15.4% Market growth 2025-2029 USD 1331.3 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth 2022-2023 (%) 12.1 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, Middle East and Africa, and South America Performing market contribution North America at 40% Key countries US, UK, Germany, Australia, France, Japan, Canada, China, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil Key companies profiled Alighieri, Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc., Card USA Inc, Duracard Plastic Cards, Fidelity National Information Services Inc., Fiserv Inc., FleetCor Technologies Inc., Givex Corp., Hennes and Mauritz AB, InComm Payments, JIFITI PRODUCTS, Kindcard Inc., PineLabs Pvt. Ltd., Plastek Card Solutions Inc., Runa Network Ltd., Square Inc., Tele Pak Inc., TransGate Solutions, Village Roadshow Ltd., and Yiftee Inc. Market Driver Gift cards continue to trend as popular payment methods for various occasions and sectors. Prepaid cards loaded with an amount of money are widely used for payment in stores, websites, restaurants, and even for experiences. Businesses, including retailers or brands, other businesses, and corporate clients, offer gift cards as rewards & incentives. Consumers, especially younger generations like Millennials and Gen Z, prefer digital gifting options for their convenience and customizability. Impacting factors include consumer preferences, customer behavior, internet accessibility, and the shift towards cashless transactions. Digital platforms, FinTechs, and PayTechs have made it easier for givers to purchase and send digital gift cards online. Market participants include retail sectors, travel companies, OTT platforms, content platforms, and hospitality services. Tax-advantage cards, E gifting, M commerce, and E commerce are also popular. Strategic alliances between brands and digital services have expanded the reach of gift cards as marketing tools. Digital cards, virtual cards, and mobile gift cards offer practical solutions for businesses and individual users alike. An increasing trend among vendors is the launch of open-loop gift cards, as opposed to closed-loop cards. Open-loop cards, which are not limited to a specific business and are branded with payment card processors like Visa, MasterCard, and American Express, offer greater flexibility and acceptance for customers. InComm, a leading UK-based prepaid product and payments technology company, has been providing the Vanilla Go global open-loop gift card brand for over five years. Open-loop Mastercard gift cards offer a personalized gifting experience, making them a preferred choice for many consumers. Vendors continue to innovate in this segment, expanding the offerings of open-loop gift cards. Request Sample of our comprehensive report now to stay ahead in the AI-driven market evolution! Market Challenges • Gift cards have become a popular payment method for consumers during special occasions, birthdays, holidays, and as expressions of love, gratitude, and appreciation. Prepaid cards, offering an amount of money for payment at various stores, websites, restaurants, and retail establishments, have gained traction among businesses, other businesses, and corporate clients. Consumers prefer digital gifting options due to convenience and the ability to customize and choose from various digital platforms, mobile wallets, and loyalty programs. Impacting factors include consumer behavior, younger generations like Millennials and Gen Z, cashless transactions, internet accessibility, and the growing popularity of e-commerce activities. Retail sectors, travel companies, OTT platforms, content platforms, and hospitality industries have embraced digital gift cards as a marketing tool and customer loyalty program. Strategic alliances between retailers or brands, FinTechs, and PayTechs have led to the development of various digital cards, virtual cards, and mobile gift cards. The convenience, practicality, and customizability of digital gift cards make them a preferred choice for individual users and B2B sales. Tax-advantage cards and e-gifting have also gained popularity in the M-commerce and E-commerce sectors. The Demonetization and Digital India initiative have further accelerated the adoption of digital services and cashless transactions. • Gift cards offer an alternative form of payment for purchases, providing an additional spending power. However, they come with certain challenges. For instance, some cards have expiration dates, which may lead to unused funds if not used within the specified time. Additionally, physical gift cards can be misplaced, resulting in a loss of the card and the funds associated with it. Furthermore, gift cards are available in various denominations, which may leave small amounts of unused funds after a purchase. These factors may result in additional expenses for the recipient. Discover how AI is revolutionizing market trends- Get your access now! Segment Overview This gift card market report extensively covers market segmentation by Type 1.1 E-gifts cards 1.2 Physical gift cards Distribution Channel 2.1 Offline 2.2 Online Geography 3.1 North America 3.2 Europe 3.3 APAC 3.4 Middle East and Africa 3.5 South America Card Type 1.1 E-gifts cards- E-gift cards have become a popular and convenient gifting solution in the retail sector. Their evolution has been driven by the digitalization trend in retail, enabling instant delivery via email with a confirmation to purchasers. E-gift cards offer enhanced versatility and flexibility, making them ideal for last-minute gifting and eliminating the risk of losing physical cards. In the corporate sector, e-gift cards have gained traction as a suitable option for employee, client, and stakeholder gifting, reducing the need for personalized gifts and logistical challenges. Vendors benefit from the financial viability and operational efficiency of e-gift cards, which can be easily integrated with their core products and services. These factors are expected to fuel the growth of the e-gift card market segment during the forecast period. Download a Sample of our comprehensive report today to discover how AI-driven innovations are reshaping competitive dynamics Research Analysis Prepaid gift cards have revolutionized the way we express love, gratitude, and appreciation. These plastic or digital cards allow the recipient to receive a specified amount of money that can be used for payment at various stores, websites, restaurants, and businesses. The convenience of gift cards has made them a popular choice for consumer behavior, especially among younger generations. With the rise of e-gifting, m-commerce, and e-commerce, gift cards have become more accessible than ever. Strategic alliances between brands and retailers have led to the creation of co-branded cards, while digital and virtual cards offer instant delivery. Gift cards serve as effective marketing tools for brand owners and customer loyalty programs, enhancing the overall shopping experience. Market Research Overview Gift cards have become a popular form of payment and gifting in today's digital age. Prepaid cards loaded with a specific amount of money can be used for various payments at stores, websites, restaurants, and businesses. The convenience of gift cards makes them an ideal choice for special occasions like birthdays, holidays, and other celebrations. Consumers prefer digital gifting options due to their practicality, customizability, and environmental friendliness. The market for gift cards is vast and includes retailer or brand-specific cards, cards from other businesses, and corporate clients for their employees or customers. Digital platforms and mobile wallets have made gifting more accessible, with consumers increasingly turning to online channels for purchasing and sending digital gift cards. Impacting factors include consumer preferences, customer behavior, younger generations like Millennials and Gen Z, cashless transactions, and the growing popularity of mobile payments and e-commerce activities. Loyalty programs and rewards & incentives are also significant drivers of the gift card market. Travel companies, OTT platforms, content platforms, and hospitality industries are among the sectors that heavily rely on gift cards as a marketing tool and customer loyalty program. The gift card market is a dynamic space with market participants offering various types of cards, including tax-advantage cards, e-gifting, M-commerce, and E-commerce. Strategic alliances between brands, FinTechs, and PayTechs have led to innovative digital cards, virtual cards, and mobile gift cards, making gifting more convenient and accessible than ever before. Table of Contents: 1 Executive Summary2 Market Landscape3 Market Sizing4 Historic Market Size5 Five Forces Analysis6 Market Segmentation Type Distribution Channel Geography Card Type 7 Customer Landscape8 Geographic Landscape9 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends10 Company Landscape11 Company Analysis12 Appendix About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. Contacts Technavio ResearchJesse MaidaMedia & Marketing ExecutiveUS: +1 844 364 1100UK: +44 203 893 3200Email: media@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Technavio Sign in to access your portfolio
