Chart: Gift Card Popularity Still Rising, Returns Dropping

December 2, 2013 By Jonathan Ping 3 Comments
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Here’s a chart from a Businessweek article showing how the percentage of people buying a gift card for the holidays is still increasing, while the percentage of people making a holiday return is dropping.

Does this mean that gift cards are no longer considered tacky or lazy? If so, that’ll save me both some time and mental anguish as I hate shopping. I’m hoping to avoid any mall this entire season (so far so good). The negative correlation shown above would suggest that as a whole we aren’t very good at picking out specific gifts anyway! 😉

Filed Under: Frugal Living
Last updated: December 2, 2013
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Comments

  1. Dmitriy says
    December 3, 2013 at 8:47 am

    Hm… here is a suggestion, if for some reason you don’t buy something just give somebody cash or a cash-type gift card – it will be better, despite of what a retailer will say.

    Reply
  2. jim says
    December 4, 2013 at 11:02 am

    Yes its OK to give gift cards in general.

    This NRF survey claims that gift cards are the most wanted gift with 60% of people wanting them specifically : http://www.nrf.com/modules.php?name=News&op=viewlive&sp_id=1682
    Elsewhere on NRF site they say that 80% of people plan to buy gift cards as gifts.

    Everyones doing it…

    Reply
  3. scottpb says
    December 8, 2013 at 7:15 am

    Isn’t that chart just showing the fact that gift cards can’t be returned? They have to be used whether someone wants them or not. I still think gift cards are impersonal and kind of take away the enjoyment of gift giving. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t accept one and use it but I try to give a Gift Card as a last resort. Where does it end? We could just give cash back and forth and end up even but what’s the point?

    Reply

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