GiftCard Partners Blog

This year holiday gift card spending on both plastic and digital gift cards will top all previous records with sales expecting to reach over $31 billion!  Gift cards have shed their reputation of being impersonal and have emerged as the perfect practical gift item for millions of holiday shoppers and are the most requested holiday gift for the 8th year in a row. Shoppers are expected to spend an average of $47.87 a card, up 6% over last year.  Since the
National Retail Federation began tracking customers holiday purchasing intentions in 2003, the total spend on gift cards has increased 83%. “Consumers young and old want to find the best way possible to create a happy holiday experience for their loved ones, and gift cards are a great option every time.”  Gift cards are a go-to gift for consumers of all ages; adults 65+ will spend the most on gift cards, while young adults will spend the least.  In addition, men will spend almost 10% more than women on gift card purchases. The following charts provide more insight into the 2014 NRF survey results, check out more
here.
About the Survey The NRF 2014 Gift Card Spending Survey was designed to gauge consumer behavior and shopping trends related to the winter holidays. The survey polled 6,593 consumers and was conducted for NRF by Prosper Insights & Analytics, November 3-10, 2014. The consumer poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 percentage points.

Recognition in the workplace is a powerful motivator, providing employees with a sense of purpose and accomplishment. Studies consistently show that peer-to-peer recognition plays a crucial role in employee engagement, productivity, and retention.

Employee leadership is critical to maintaining employee morale and motivating employees toward organizational goals. Here are three tips to ensure you lead your employees effectively.

 
GiftCard Partners polled 500 consumers, equally divided between men and women, to get a pulse on where they are both receiving and redeeming their gift cards. These infographics dive into B2B gift card usage behaviors and outlines retail gift card awareness and purchase. We also take a look at the degree to which gift cards drive new customers and incremental visits. Below are the two infographics from our latest survey on gift card usage. Some interesting insights!
Click on each image to see a larger version open in a new window. Feel free to embed it on your own website with the code below.

This topic is really exciting for us at GiftCard Partners. In the past we've reference the growing popularity of non-cash incentives in the marketplace, highlighting statistics from the 2013 study from
Incentive Federation Inc. and
Aspect Market Intelligence's
Incentive Market Study. The 2013 study touched on the popularity of non-cash incentives, stating that 74% of businesses use non-cash options to recognize and reward key audiences in the form of incentive travel, merchandise, or 
gift cards. Now 
new research by the
Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) and Aspect Market Intelligence, conducted for the
Incentive Gift Card Council,  is showing how non-cash incentives (specifically gift cards) are still hot, hot, hot. The study highlights the continued preference for gift cards in a variety of programs, with the largest companies using them at a rate of 56%. So what are these gift cards being used for? Of the companies using gift cards, 67% are using them for employee incentives, 38% for sales incentives, 30% for customer rewards, and 8% are allocated to channel incentives. As gift cards continue to be a staple for rewards and incentives, with goals to foster motivation or drive engagement, acquisition, retention or loyalty, it's safe to say they're here to stay. Does your company use gift cards in any of their programs? If so, we'd love to here more about how. And if you're looking to add gift cards to your programs check out our gift card brands
here.