Incentive Trends: Key Takeaways from the 2026 IRF Industry Outlook

🔎 Article at a glance 🔍

Based on new IRF research, incentive program owners should focus on: 

• Prioritizing digital reward delivery to reduce friction and overhead

• Designing programs that scale efficiently as participation grows

• Investing in technology that supports automation, tracking, and gift card fulfillment

• Offering reward options that remain broadly appealing across diverse audiences

Incentive trends are always evolving. If you’re currently mapping out your incentive strategies for the next fiscal year, you know the landscape is shifting. Between fluctuating economic signals and the ever-evolving expectations of employees and customers, "business as usual" isn't an option.

Studies from the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) regularly provide a vital roadmap for gift card incentive program owners.

Its latest, the Industry Outlook for 2026: Merchandise, Gift Cards and Event Gifting, reveals a unique "mixed" climate for both European and North American markets: strong optimism alongside cost pressures and tighter scrutiny of spend. 

Backed by this research, here's the incentive trends to understand as you plan for 2026. 👇

1. The paradox of 2026 incentives: optimism amid economic pressure

The headline from the IRF is clear: the incentive industry remains resilient. Over 90% of respondents in both North America and Europe expressed a positive outlook for 2026.

Organizations continue to recognize how effectively incentives can drive performance, even when broader economic conditions remain uncertain.

But that optimism is paired with growing cost pressure. While many organizations expect their incentive budgets to increase, the IRF notes that these increases are generally aligned with inflation rather than representing meaningful real growth.

At the same time, participation in incentive programs is expanding. In North America, 65% of programs expect the number of incentive recipients to grow in 2026, with European programs showing similar momentum. 

The takeaway: Program owners are being asked to support more participants without proportional increases in purchasing power, placing greater emphasis on efficiency, scalability, and perceived value.

So to succeed in 2026, you’ll need to do more with the same. This means moving away from "fluff" and focusing on scalable, low-overhead rewards (like bulk digital gift cards + revenue sharing) that maximize the perceived value for the recipient without inflating your administrative costs.

2. Gift cards continue to anchor modern incentive programs 

Gift cards remain the most widely used reward type across incentive programs, and their role continues to expand.

Specifically, the IRF reports that gift cards are increasingly used in event gifting (surpassing merchandise as the most commonly used event reward).  And that's largely due to increased flexibility, ease of fulfillment, and broad recipient appeal.