Personal : Hapi sees 178% growth in eVoucher retail spend

Personal Group's Hapi sees 178% growth in eVoucher retail spend

29 January 2018 Personal Group plc, a provider of employee benefits and insurance products, has revealed that online spend via discounts and rewards accessed through their Hapi platform and app has increased by 34% year on year, with spend on eVouchers growing by a whopping 178% year-on-year. The figure is part of a wider analysis by the provider into the spending habits of the two million employees across the UK who use their products and services.

Personal Group plc provides employee benefits to more than 550 businesses, giving over two million employees across the UK access to more than 1,000 everyday discounts and rewards. With the cost of living increasing and wages in real terms dropping for many, Personal Group enables employers to help their employees' pay to go further with access to benefits and discounts through the Hapi platform. These include discounts on groceries, fashion, travel, utilities, days-out and even holidays.

In 2017, although employees had access to thousands of retail and leisure discounts through Hapi, 95% of all spend was with the same 22 retailers. Surprisingly, this indicates a broadening of employee spend. In 2016 the top 92% of spend was made up of only ten retailers.

One explanation is the growing popularity of eVouchers, where staff can access instant savings through their employee app while in store or shopping online. Although more traditional employee discounts such as reloadable cards remain popular, and can offer greater percentage discounts than eVouchers, the ease of use and convenience of eVouchers means that this discount type has seen the greatest overall year on year growth.

Other highlights include:
• 2017 was a record year for spend on the Hapi platform with 34 % year-on-year growth;
• eVouchers were the fastest growing type of discount, with 178% year-on-year growth. Personal Group attributes this rate of growth to the ease of access and the instantaneous nature of eVouchers accessed via a native app, making it a popular choice for employees;
• 22 retailers represented 95% of the spend in 2017, growing from only ten retailers representing 92% of spend in 2016;
• Employees spent the most in November using the additional savings from their employee benefits platform. One possible reason for this is that it coincided with Black Friday which could have driven more people to spend online; and
• Cinema was the most widely used voucher, even more popular than retail discounts in terms of volume of transactions.

David Walker, Chief Commercial Officer at Personal Group added: 'The continued and growing popularity of rewards and discounts demonstrates that staff are always on the look-out for ways to save money and get great deals. Everyday discounts that are instantly accessible, whenever and wherever, are a fantastic way for employers to show their appreciation in a practical and useful way, especially when properly tailored to the employee base and their preferences - a win-win!'