Gift-Card Surge to Provide Much-Needed Boost for U.S. Retailers
- Every year, as much as $3 billion in gift cards go unused
- Shoppers redeeming gift cards often spend beyond the balance
Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
Gift cards, the most mundane present you can buy someone, are giving U.S. retailers a much-needed cash infusion as they close out a rough year.
Americans are on course to buy more of them than ever before, with gift-card spending this holiday expected to rise 19% compared to last year, according to payment service Blackhawk Network. More than half of American shoppers say they’ll buy more cards this season than in previous years, with shoppers planning to purchase 10 cards on average -- twice as many as last year. And with billions of dollars of gift cards left unredeemed annually, that boom in sales could translate to essentially free money for retailers in the midst of their most crucial quarter of the year.