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Consumers should personalize the prepaid cards they give as gifts this holiday season by packaging them with other items and buying from retailers that allow shoppers to design their own cards, the National Retail Federation suggests. The suggestions follow a survey Worthington, Ohio-based BIGresearch LLC conducted for the federation that says 54.9% of consumers want to receive a gift card this holiday season, up from 53.8% who did last year. From Sept. 30 to Oct. 7, BIGresearch asked 8,117 consumers what gifts they would like to receive this holiday season, the federation says. Several factors could make consumers less likely to buy gift cards this year, the data suggest. For example, 25.4% of respondents said they would be less likely to buy a gift card because they consider prepaid cards impersonal, 10.9% said they would rather buy merchandise on sale instead of gift cards, and 9.8% said they do not want to buy a card with expiration dates or added fees. Gift cards from the top 25 U.S. retailers do not have expiration dates, and 84% of the cards do not have fees, the federation says, noting gift cards from banks, malls and credit card companies are more likely to have fees. The federation did not return calls for comment.
