InMarket: Spending on Gift Cards Expected to Surge amidst Record Shipping Delays

InMarket, the leader in 360-degree consumer intelligence and real-time activation, released new research on gift card purchasing this holiday season. The Holiday 2021 Gift Card Scorecard report, details an accelerating shift to gift cards as the go-to holiday gift amidst supply chain woes, inflation, and lingering effects of COVID-19. The report finds that shoppers are spending more on gift cards earlier than last year and preparing for the effects of the supply chain crunch emptying shelves during the peak holiday season.

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Key insights include:

• Average spending is up year-over-year
  • When comparing week number 35 through 41, average spend per shopper is up on average 7.7% 2021 vs. 2020, similar to a surge reported by InMarket last year, and up on average 24.2% when comparing 2021 to 2019.
  • In 2021, spending is starting to tick upward: During Week 41 (October 10-16) InMarket measured a 22% increase in transactions per shopper in 2021 from the same week in 2020.
• E-commerce gift cards surge in popularity as shoppers wait out shipping delays
  • E-commerce gift cards accounted for 29.8% of gift cards purchased, up from 19.6% in 2020. Notably, Amazon’s share of gift card purchases doubled from 2020 to 2021, growing from 6.7% of total gift card purchases by brand in 2020 to 13.5% in 2021.

“We continue to see an evolution in how, where and when Americans are shopping during these unprecedented times. As a result, new normals are being created including the emergence of new conveniences like curbside pickup, and the growth of omnichannel shopping,” said Todd Dipaola, CEO and Founder of InMarket. “Supply chain logistics and the lack of workers have created unprecedented shipping delays.  As a result Americans are moving to a “buy now and shop later” mindset and are turning to gift cards as they weather a season filled with delays and frustration. Retailers should prepare for an extended omnichannel holiday season and look to provide value and options to shoppers as they look for ways to solve this season’s challenges.”

Findings from the report are based on first and third-party transactional data sources, including InMarket’s proprietary panel of opted-in, anonymized U.S. credit card/debit card consumers, and item-level sales data comprising over 200,000 consumers in the U.S., in September and October 2021.

InMarket’s Gift Cards, Holidays 2021 report also assesses the share of total gift card purchases, and average spending per shopper on gift cards across various retail categories.

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Key findings include:

QSR + Casual Dining

• Starbucks owns the highest share of gift card purchases for any company in the assessment: The coffee chain was responsible for 11.7% of all gift cards sold in September and October of 2021. All of its QSR competitors sit below 2.9% share.
• While McDonald’s (2.5% ) trails Starbucks (11.7% %) by a wide margin in terms of share of purchases, McDonald’s gift card buyers are spending more on McDonald’s gift cards than other QSR chains at an average of $34.90 per shopper.
• Among casual dining chains, Buffalo Wild Wings  (3.2%) owns the highest share of total gift card purchases, while O’Charley’s ranks first for spending per shopper at $58.33.

General Commerce

• Among general commerce gift cards that work for many types of products and services, Visa holds the highest share of purchases at 14.8%, with shoppers spending an average of $106.87.
• Second place belongs to Amazon, which accounts for 13.5% of total gift card purchases, up from 6.7% last year and $75.80 spent per person.
• MasterCard owns a 1.3% share of gift card purchases, with shoppers spending an average of $71.88.

Electronics

• Google holds the highest share of total gift card purchases at 5.3%, with Xbox trailing at 4.9% share and Apple at 1.9%.
• In the video game wars of 2021, Xbox is edging out PlayStation with a 4.9% and 0.3% share of gift card purchases, respectively.
  • However, PlayStation shoppers are spending the most on gift cards for this category at an average of $82.67 per customer, an increase from $20.98 over the same period in 2020. Xbox, meanwhile, averages $31.33 per purchase, up from $28.92 in 2020.

Home Improvement

• Lowe’s is leading the category with 2.4% of all gift card purchases and an average of $77.84 spent per shopper.
• Home Depot comprises 1% of all gift card purchases and an average of $39.96 spent per shopper.