Holiday Season Gift Card Activation Dollars Grew 2.1% in 2009
By: First Data Corporation
January 20
ATLANTA, Jan. 15, 2010 – First Data Corporation, a global leader in electronic commerce and payment processing, today announced that holiday sales (in dollars) of merchant branded gift cards increased by 2.1 percent compared to last year. The holiday season began with a flurry of gift card activity on Black Friday, slowed in the weeks that followed, and then rebounded in the last few days before Christmas. The overall increase in gift card activations was consistent with First Data’s forecast for the season.
Merchants increased their use of incentive gift cards to attract customers to stores and increase holiday spending. The most significant increase in incentive card use occurred among specialty retailers, who saw a 46.9 percent increase in gift card dollars activated on Black Friday compared to last year. Specialty retail redemptions rose 14.7 percent the week after Thanksgiving. Redemptions rose 3.4 percent across all merchant types for the week.
Strong sales in the final days before Christmas had a significant impact on holiday gift card performance. The few days before Christmas are the largest gift card sales days of the year, and overall activations in dollars increased 11.8 percent from the Monday before Christmas to the Sunday after Christmas.
This First Data Holiday Gift Card Performance Report compares 2009 gift card sales with the same period in 2008. The numbers in this report are based on aggregate transaction data generated by First Data’s gift card processing business.
|
All Gift Cards |
CHANGE |
|
|
Dollar value of gift cards sold |
+2.1% |
|
|
Number of gift cards sold |
+0.2% |
|
|
Average gift card |
+1.9% |
|
|
2008 |
2009 |
|
|
$29.39 |
$29.95 |
|
|
Note: “All Gift Cards” includes merchant types not represented elsewhere in this report. |
||
Specialty Retail
Specialty retail performance was strong. The number of gift card activations increased 6.7 percent and the dollar value of cards activated rose 7.3 percent over last year. Average gift card value grew by 0.5 percent.
The specialty retail category includes merchants that sell clothing, electronics, books, sporting goods, hardware, music, video, beauty supplies, home goods and other items.
|
Specialty Retail Gift Cards |
CHANGE |
|
|
Dollar value of gift cards sold |
+7.3% |
|
|
Number of gift cards sold |
+6.7% |
|
|
Average gift card |
+0.5% |
|
|
2008 |
2009 |
|
|
$42.92 |
$43.14 |
|
Restaurants
After a slow start to the season, restaurant gift cards saw a strong end to the holiday season. Restaurant gift card activations in dollars grew 5.8 percent in 2009. The number of cards activated climbed 5.6 percent.
|
Restaurant Gift Cards |
CHANGE |
|
|
Dollar value of gift cards sold |
+5.8% |
|
|
Number of gift cards sold |
+5.6% |
|
|
Average gift card |
+0.2% |
|
|
2008 |
2009 |
|
|
$18.09 |
$18.13 |
|
About the First Data Holiday Gift Card Performance Report
This report compares the number of gift cards sold between Monday, Nov. 23, 2009 and Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009 to those sold during the same period last year, Monday, Nov. 24, 2008 and Sunday, Dec. 28, 2008.
The numbers in the First Data Holiday Gift Card Performance Report are based on aggregate transaction data across First Data’s gift card processing business. Prior year transaction data represents comparable closed loop transactions processed by First Data for the retailers included in the summary.
About First Data
First Data powers the global economy by making it easy, fast and secure for people and businesses to buy goods and services using virtually any form of electronic payment. Whether the choice of payment is a gift card, a credit or debit card or a check, First Data securely processes the transaction and harnesses the power of the data to deliver intelligence and insight for millions of merchant locations and thousands of card issuers in 36 countries. For more information, visit www.firstdata.com.
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