2025: A Breakout Year for Your Gift Cards
In 2025, we worked harder than ever to bring your gift cards into the spotlight, driving redemptions, unlocking new demand and connecting you to a growing base of global customers.
Through the Runa Network, your gift cards are now used for more than gifting. They’ve become a go-to payout method for rewards, refunds, recognition, loyalty and incentives, trusted by fast-moving businesses that want to deliver meaningful value, instantly.
As your partner, we focus on one thing: helping your gift cards go further. And this year, we did just that.
Promotions That Drive Results
Promotions remain one of the most powerful ways to increase visibility and drive redemptions and in 2025, we turned that power into performance. Throughout the year, we launched hundreds of targeted campaigns designed to spotlight your gift cards at high-impact moments: seasonal surges, new customer onboarding, product launches and more.
Across these campaigns:
- 50+ unique merchants were featured
- 65+ Runa customers ran promotions
- Campaigns spanned 9 countries, creating global visibility
- Merchants saw an average 75% uplift in redemptions vs. baseline
- And on average, promotions delivered a 21x return on investment
These campaigns aren’t just about placement – they’re about results. And as more customers embed gift cards into their core programs, these promotions offer a direct path to new audiences and higher volumes.
Looking ahead, we’ve built the infrastructure to scale. Our merchant success team is ready to support you with everything from setup and targeting to creative and performance tracking, making it easier than ever to run campaigns that deliver.
Runa Shop: A New Way to Reach New Customers
In 2025, we launched Runa Shop, a no-code gift card marketplace that Runa customers can brand, configure, and launch in just 24 hours.
What does this mean for you? More visibility. More customers.
Runa Shop gives our customers more ways to feature your gift cards front and center. It’s a new channel, with no additional work required on your side and a powerful way to increase visibility with modern, digital-first buyers.
Leading businesses have already launched with Runa Shop and whether it’s used for employee perks, customer loyalty, or promotional rewards, this gives your card new reach and new relevance. As adoption grows in 2026, so will your audience.
Smarter Insights: The New Merchant Dashboard
You asked for more data, and we delivered.
Our new Merchant Dashboard gives you real-time visibility into how your gift cards are performing across the Runa Network. Now you can:
- Monitor redemption trends across time
- View performance at the SKU level
- Explore regional and partner insights
It’s built to help you make smarter decisions, faster and to show exactly how your gift cards are driving results across programs and markets.
New Verticals. Growing Demand. New Customers.
This year, demand for gift cards expanded in both new and established directions—and your gift card was right at the center of it.
We saw strong momentum in new verticals like fintech and the gig economy, where businesses are turning to gift cards for fast, flexible, and cost-effective payouts. From wallet cashouts to global gig rewards, gift cards are becoming the go-to alternative to traditional bank transfers or internal credits.
At the same time, we saw continued growth across core verticals like employee rewards, loyalty programs, and customer incentives, areas where gift cards have proven to drive engagement, boost satisfaction, and scale with ease across markets.
This growth was fueled by new customers like:
- Ohme, an EV energy provider using gift cards to reward drivers for sustainable charging habits
- Dynata, one of the world’s leading research & insights platform, delivering incentives to global panel participants
- Youpay, an influencer platform enabling content creators to be paid and rewarded for their work.
Each of these customers brings new audiences and new redemption moments, proving that the value of your gift card continues to grow with every use case.
Looking Ahead: What’s Next for 2026
2025 was about momentum. In 2026, we’re focused on acceleration.
We’re expanding what’s possible for our merchant partners – not just more of what worked, but smarter ways to scale your visibility, impact and reach. Here’s what’s on the horizon:
- Smarter promotion tools that give you more control, from self-serve setup to real-time performance insights
- New channels and use cases as gift cards become the payout method of choice across fintech, benefits, and beyond
- Deeper insights into where, when, and how your gift card is performing, so you can turn data into direction, faster
We’re building a platform that not only supports your growth but unlocks it.
Thank you for being part of the Runa Network. Your gift card is helping shape the future of payouts, and we’re proud to help it go further, faster, and into more hands.
Ready to take the next step? Your Partner Manager is here to help make 2026 your most impactful year yet.