In a recent article by MediaPost, consumers have reported that they would prefer not to receive gift cards this holiday season on the whole. What I mean is that gift card popularity is on the downward swing. Consumers would simply prefer to receive other types of gifts in lieu of gift cards; only 15% of consumers have reported that they would prefer to receive gift cards as a gift. The study focuses on the decline of store gift cards but does say that general purpose gift cards for gas, grocery or VISA etc. Either way, the gift card business is a big one to the tune of almost $90 billion dollars in cards sold a year. This year, analysts expect gift card sales to drop from about $93 billion to $87 billion. We’ll have to see if the trend continues. The quote of the week from this article is that Gift cards are still better to get than to receive. This is probably due to the hidden fees, the unused card value, and the loss/forgetful factor.
