Digimarc Corporation and Honeywell have teamed up to help retailers and brands fight gift card fraud.
The global gift card market was valued at $1.24 trillion in 2024 and is expected to reach $2.31 trillion by 2030. Gift card fraud losses grew 364% from 2018 to 2021 and continue to increase.
Honeywell is one of the first manufacturers to configure its handheld scanners to detect Digimarc’s new digital security layer for gift cards, enabling retailers to automate detection of tampered cards and prevent their activation at the point of sale. Digimarc’s end-to-end solution is over three times more secure than ‘card-only’ security features and removes the need for cashiers to manually inspect or otherwise prepare cards prior to scanning. Retailers using this solution report dramatically lowered incidents of fraud and faster gift card scanning, thereby improving the customer experience.
Honeywell has committed to rolling out this newest version of Digimarc software across its flagship handheld retail scanner portfolio by early 2026.
“Digimarc and Honeywell understand that retailers and consumers demand excellent fraud protection, as well as a seamless checkout experience,” explained Ken Sickles, Digimarc’s chief product officer. “The latest version of our on-scanner software delivers a step-change improvement in tamper evidence and first-pass read rates, creating more robust fraud protection and greater scanning speed and efficiency at checkout.”
“Gift card fraud is a serious, pervasive and increasingly costly problem for retailers,” said David Barker, president of Honeywell Productivity Solutions & Services. “Honeywell is committed to delivering best-in-class solutions to protect retailers, brands and consumers.”
