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Despite predictions of bleak holiday retail sales, gift cards will continue to be hot items at the point of sale, according to a new Cardbeat report from Auriemma Consulting Group LLC. Auriemma in September conducted the online survey with 439 consumers. More than half (54%) of the respondents planned to purchase gift cards this holiday season. While that figure is down from 59% in a similar survey Auriemma conducted in 2007, the average anticipated card-load amount has risen, to $51 from $43 two years ago, according to Auriemma. Some 32% of respondents planned to purchase $25 gift cards this year, 27% planned to buy $50 cards and 10% planned to buy $100 cards. Store-specific gift cards continue to be the most-popular type of card consumers buy as presents, cited by 55% of respondents. But network-branded cards slowly are making gains. The percentage of respondents intending to buy network-branded gift cards increased to 30% this year from 27% in 2007 and from 21% in 2005. "Store-specific gift cards still have the lion's share of the market, but some consumers are not purchasing them because they are afraid of stores going bankrupt," Nancy Stahl, Cardbeat editor, tells CardLine. Gift card recipients likely will not wait long to redeem the value when receiving gift cards, as 56% of respondents this year planned to use the funds within four months. "Consumers are holding off on buying things themselves [because of the economy], so when they get gift cards, they use them pretty quickly," Stahl says.
