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Holiday Shoppers to Spend $26.3 Billion on Gift Cards

By Staff -- Gifts and Dec, 11/14/2007 3:29:00 PM

Washington, DC — Gift card sales will total $26.3 billion this holiday season, according to the fifth annual National Retail Federation (NRF) Gift Card Survey, conducted by BIGresearch. That’s up from $24.8 billion in 2006. The average consumer will also spend more on gift cards than they did last year: $122.59 vs. $116.51 in 2006. (The average gift card buyer comes in even higher, at $156.24).

More than half — 56.6 percent — listed gift cards among the major categories of gifts they plan to purchase, and 78.5 percent plan to buy at least one, explained Pam Goodfellow of BIGresearch.

Consumer Reports, Yonkers, NY, also released research showing the popularity of gift cards with shoppers. Its survey found 62 percent of consumers are planning to buy gift cards this season. However, they may not be quite so popular with recipients: 27 percent of those who received a gift card last year never used the card, the survey said, leading to $8 billion in unclaimed cards in 2006. Common reasons for lack of redemption include lack of time, not finding anything they wanted, and forgetting about the cards.

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