The VEX Gift Card from Voucher Express was created nearly 20 years ago and launched in July 2006. It was designed as a ‘swap-out’ voucher that could be gifted and then exchanged for a range of high street retail gift vouchers sold on the Voucher Express website – one of the very first transactional websites in the UK since 1999.
At the time, gift cards were a rarity (and eGifts a futurist’s dream) and most retailers only issued paper gift vouchers. Research showed us that the US name for gift vouchers was Gift Certificates so, mindful of search engine traffic, our new product began life as the Voucher Express Gift Certificate and remained so until 2018.
As a genuine leader in this field (nothing like it existed at the start), sales of the VEX Gift Card grew rapidly – both to consumers benefiting from the universal appeal of the product; and to businesses rewarding and gifting large workforces with multiple interests and shopping preferences. From our first sizable corporate order for a large regional Building Society the VEX Gift Card has been bought and used by over 10,000 companies of all sizes – creating annual sales of around £10m.
Throughout its history the VEX Gift Card has continued to evolve. Variants include VEX Eats, a specific eating-out product; and VEX Groceries which played a significant role in helping local authorities distribute funds for supermarket shopping during the Covid years.
From the start the VEX Gift Card promised to solve the age-old dilemma of what gift to send, with recipients given the option of exchanging for gift vouchers from the biggest retail brands in Britain.
Over time, many of those original retail brands have disappeared from sight but the VEX Gift Card continues to flex with the times, always representing the best, curated range of relevant and respected retailers covering multiple interest categories. We’re always looking at ways to enhance the offering, with new retailer additions and technical developments. With two region specific VEX Gift Cards for the Irish and Dutch markets planned for 2025, watch this space…