Survey: Millennials Clamoring for Gift Cards this Holiday Season (Dec. 19, 2013)
Gift cards are a hot item on millennials’ wishlists this year. According to a new survey from Blackhawk Network, which polled 400 consumers ages 18 to 28 this month, 89 percent of respondents indicated that they want gift cards this holiday season. What’s more, 73 percent said they preferred receiving a gift card over a specific gift item. Eliminating the need to return merchandise was among the leading draws of gift cards for millennials, 76 percent of whom said they don’t like returning items. And young consumers often use gift cards to treat themselves to something they wouldn’t normally purchase or to help fund the purchase of a more expensive item, with 90 percent of survey respondents indicating they use gift cards for one or both of those functions.
And when it comes to gift cards, millennials give as good as they get. Eighty-eight percent of those polled said they expect to purchase a gift card for someone this year. The most popular value range of cards is between $10 and $50, with 73 percent of respondents planning to buy a card within that range. And for millennials, gifting is heavily influenced by social media; 46 percent said they were likely to use social media to decide who to send a gift card to, and 51 percent were interested in sending cards through social media platforms.
Underscoring the popularity of gift cards this holiday season, online gift card provider GiftCards.com today announced record sales for the month of December. The company said the average value loaded on cards purchased through its Website jumped 13 percent over last December—an increase GiftCards.com largely attributes to the migration of consumers buying cards online versus in stores.
