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€100 And A Ribbon. December's Favourite Gift.
Values, seasons and redemption of restaurant gift cards in Belgium.
HappyChef Datahub
A restaurant gift card is a round-number present: the most common value is exactly €100, and two in three cards carry a round amount. December alone brings more than a fifth of a year's gift card value, almost three times an average month, and seven in ten cards are bought and paid online. These four insights show what guests give, when, and how much of it comes back to the table.
The Insights In This Article
Insight 1 of 4
The Most Common Gift Card Is Worth €100
€100 is the most common value, on 23% of gift cards. The average card is worth €111 and the median €100. 66% of cards carry a round amount such as €50, €100, €150 or €200.
| Group | Share | Datapoints |
|---|---|---|
| under €50 | 8.4% | 197 |
| €50 | 17.3% | 520 |
| €51–99 | 16.9% | 459 |
| €100 | 24.4% | 745 |
| €101–149 | 6.2% | 222 |
| €150 | 9.7% | 368 |
| €151–199 | 2.3% | 106 |
| €200 | 7.1% | 287 |
| over €200 | 7.6% | 286 |
- Period
- Gift cards issued from 1 January 2025 to 30 September 2026
- Datapoints
- 3,190
- Restaurants
- 12 Belgian restaurants
- Method
- Face value of gift cards sold or issued. Average and median per restaurant with at least 20 cards; the value bands are averaged per restaurant.
Insight 2 of 4
December Brings 22% Of The Year's Gift Card Value
Restaurants sell 22% of their annual gift card value in December, 2.7× an average month. No other month comes close.
| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| October | 5.1% |
| November | 3.9% |
| December | 22.1% |
| January | 9.4% |
| February | 4.2% |
| March | 6.3% |
| April | 6.4% |
| May | 7.7% |
| June | 9.9% |
| July | 6.3% |
| August | 9.7% |
| September | 9% |
- Period
- Gift cards issued from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026
- Datapoints
- 1,949
- Restaurants
- 7 Belgian restaurants
- Method
- Each restaurant's gift card value per month as a share of its twelve-month total, only for restaurants that already sold gift cards before October 2025, averaged.
Insight 3 of 4
72% Of Gift Cards Are Bought Online
72% of gift cards are bought and paid in the restaurant's online shop; 28% are issued at the counter.
| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| Bought and paid online | 71.7% |
| Issued at the counter | 28.3% |
- Period
- Gift cards issued from 1 January 2025 to 30 September 2026
- Datapoints
- 3,190
- Restaurants
- 12 Belgian restaurants
- Method
- Bought online means bought and paid in the online gift card shop; the rest was issued by the restaurant at the counter. Per restaurant, averaged.
Insight 4 of 4
45% Of Gift Cards Are Fully Used Within Six Months
Of gift cards at least six months old, 45% have been fully used. Up to 53% have not been fully used yet, but most of them can still be.
| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| Fully used | 45.4% |
| Not (fully) used yet | 52.5% |
| Expired | 2.1% |
- Period
- Gift cards issued from 1 January 2025 to 31 March 2026 (at least six months old)
- Datapoints
- 1,994
- Restaurants
- 10 Belgian restaurants
- Method
- Status of gift cards at least six months old, per restaurant, averaged. A card that is not used yet can still be used, so the unused share is an upper bound.
How We Built This Article
Period
Gift cards issued from 1 January 2025 to 30 September 2026 · Gift cards issued from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026 · Gift cards issued from 1 January 2025 to 31 March 2026 (at least six months old)
Datapoints
4 insights, each resting on at least 1,949 datapoints (the largest on 3,190), from 7–12 Belgian restaurants.
Method
Anonymous aggregates over Belgian HappyChef restaurants, each restaurant weighted equally, with every figure over at least five restaurants and 1,000 datapoints.
About This Data
This analysis is based on Belgian restaurants that use HappyChef: 7–12 restaurants, depending on the insight. Restaurants that joined during the period are normalised so the growing number of restaurants never inflates a trend, demo and test accounts are left out, and placeholder values (an empty field saved as zero) are ignored.
Every figure is an anonymous aggregate. Each one combines at least five restaurants and at least 1,000 datapoints, no restaurant is named or singled out, and no name, email address, phone number or remark of a guest is ever published.
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