BROOKFIELD, Wis.–Eighty percent of consumers say they enjoy receiving a gift card as a gift, and 68% of consumers will spend the full value of that gift card in three months or less, according to the 19th Annual Prepaid Consumer Insights Study from Fiserv.
The study further found employers are increasingly using gift cards to reward their employees, and retailers are finding new ways to leverage gift cards in their incentives and rewards programs.
According to Fiserv, five of the most interesting findings in the survey of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers include:
‘Satisfaction’ Abounds with Gift Cards
- 80% of consumers say they feel satisfied when they receive a gift card, so satisfied that consumers aren’t waiting long to spend them. 71% of consumers say that it takes one or two purchases to redeem the full value of a gift card; and 68% say it takes less than three months to fully redeem.
Physical Cards Still Reign, But Digital is Growing
- While digital gift card spending is on the rise, physical gift cards are still preferred by 54% of consumers. With that said, digital awareness is growing as 51% of consumers say they are aware they can use a mobile app to store a gift card, more than doubling from 2019 when only 25% of consumers were aware, Fiserv reported.
Certain Gift Cards are Gaining
- Consumers are most likely to turn to online-only merchants to purchase gift cards (53%); big-box retailers come in a close second at 49%; and 41% prefer to buy them at coffee shops.
Show Me the Money
- 37% of consumers that that the best way to incentivize them to buy a gift card would be to offer them a bonus gift card (i.e. purchase a $50 gift card, get a $10 gift card for free).
Work Perks
- 63% of employees report having received a gift card from an employer, up from 32% in 2019. The sharp increase of gift cards as a work incentive has been welcomed by employees, with 89% of consumers saying that a gift card is an appropriate business gift or reward.
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