We notice you are visiting from a U.S. Internet provider. 
13/11/2009 -
Gift cards are expected to comprise a large part of holiday spending this year, studies have shown, making gift-card enabled POS terminals a holiday requirement for Canadian merchants.Retailers will likely seen an uptick in gift card sales this holiday season because reduced inventories have made deep discounts - such as the ones seen last year in an attempt to move excess items - largely unnecessary, so shoppers will be less likely to choose sale items over gift cards, USA Today reported.
Further evidence from Bankrate.com supports this theory - the personal finance information resource released a study recently forecasting gift cards to be the number one present this holiday season.
The National Retail Federation and BIGresearch also put out a study recently indicating that gift cards are the most requested item on consumers' holiday wish lists, a trend that likely extends to Canadian consumers.
Indeed, Givex reports that 23 percent of Canadian consumers will buy gift cards instead of giving cash or buying other gifts.
While accepting general purpose gift cards - such as those offered by Visa and American Express - is always a good strategy, retailers can experience even more benefits by offering store-brand gift card payment processing, experts say.
