Plastic Makes Perfect

In a pretty comprehensive look at the subject, Catherine Donaldson-Evans reports on Fox News on the growth in gift cards this holiday season. Starbucks, in particular, has had great success:

Since the company launched its gift card in 2001, there have been more than 100 million redemption transactions that have resulted in net sales of more than $400 million, according to spokeswoman Kristine Jimenez-Ortiz.

Jimenez-Ortiz said the Starbucks gift card business has seen a 30 percent increase from year to year; for fiscal year 2003, 10 percent of all company transactions were paid for with a gift card.

The article goes on to note that much of Starbuck's success is related to customers being able to reload the cards.