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05/11/2009 -
As consumers look to make their holiday spending more efficient, gift cards are expected to have a large presence in this year's holiday shopping season, according to recent studies.Consumer Reports found that 46 percent of U.S. consumers plan to buy gift cards, a trend that likely is not restricted to the U.S.
The report also highlighted the potential benefits for merchants that offer gift card payment processing - half of U.S. adults received a gift card in 2008, but one-fourth of those people have not yet redeemed their card. For merchants, this translates to essentially free money.
The report also suggested that gift card payment processing can help boost sales, as 65 percent of adults who received a gift card in 2008 spent more than the value of the card. This marks an increase of 7 percent since 2007.
An additional study from Deloitte projected that gift card spending will rise even higher, reporting that 64 percent of consumers plan to buy gift cards this year as presents. This gives gift cards the first-place ranking for the sixth consecutive year.
To receive the revenue and cash flow benefits of gift card payment processing, merchants are encouraged to upgrade their POS terminals to ones that offer this technology.
