Brits sitting on almost £580m worth of unused gift vouchers

Sept. 16, 2010 - PRLog -- A new poll by the UK’s leading daily city deals website, http://www.Groupola.com has revealed the approximate amount Brits are currently wasting by retaining gift vouchers at home, instead of spending them when receiving them.

http://www.Groupola.com polled a sample of 1,621 adults across the UK and asked them questions surrounding gift vouchers. 72% stated they currently had gift vouchers at home, and when asked to state the value of the voucher(s), the average per person was £20.

With approximately 40 million adults in the UK and 72% of those potentially having gift vouchers to the average value of £20 in their home, that would equate to a possible total of £576,000,000 worth of unused gift vouchers currently in the UK.

As the poll by http://www.Groupola.com found that 51% of those with gift vouchers at home claimed they probably wouldn’t use them, there is a potential £293,760,000 worth of unwanted gift vouchers set to be completely wasted.

When further questioned by http://www.Groupola.com, 66% of those who claimed they wouldn’t use their gift vouchers said it was because they just ‘wouldn’t get round to it’, whilst 13% admitted to often ‘forgetting’ about them.

53% of the respondents said they ‘often’ bought gift vouchers for friends and family around Christmas time and Birthdays, despite the fact that 62% said they personally prefer presents, rather than vouchers.

Mark Pearson, Chairman of http://www.Groupola.com, commented on the findings;

“When it comes to gift-buying, vouchers are often the easy option for the person purchasing the present, as they allow the receiver to buy something they really like. However, it seems that a lot of people don’t actually get round to using the gift vouchers and, whilst this is a huge gain for the retailer, it’s resulting in massive losses for consumers.

“With Christmas a matter of months away now, and the festive season being a prime time for gift voucher giving and receiving, we wanted to carry out this study to highlight the amount that is wasted. We’d advise people to put a little more thought into their gift buying and ask themselves whether or not the people they are buying for will really make use of vouchers. If not, it’s probably wise to go for something else.”

LINK http://www.Groupola.com

***ENDS***

For more information, please contact Charlotte Horsfall, of 10 Yetis Public Relations Agency on charlotte@10yetis.co.uk  

Editors Notes

Groupola.com has saved £3.3m for consumers since launch

Overnight, Groupola.com became the biggest Group Buying Power website in the UK.

Groupola.com operates in 10 of the largest cities across the UK, including London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Nottingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Mark Pearson, Chairman of MyVoucherCodes is a regular media contributor regarding online shopping and the credit crunch. At 29 his personal worth is more than £30 million. Mark was previously a trainee chef working for Gordon Ramsay at Claridges, London.

MyVoucherCodes has had sales exceeding £481m in the last year