Mobile wallets vs corporate gift cards

It’s been roughly 26 years since the idea of gift cards materialised. Today, they are pretty much everywhere and have even made their way into corporate businesses, aptly labelled as “corporate gift cards”. As far as we can tell, the very first gift card appeared in the US. Neiman Marcus, a department store company, wanted to explore a simple idea: give customers the option to pay upfront for a card that could be gifted to someone who’d buy clothing, shoes, handbags or accessories at a later date. It didn’t quite stick for them back then and became a novelty item – something to be kept out of sight unless explicitly asked for by a customer.