Survey Finds 2/3rds Of Consumers Plan To Buy Gift Cards For Holidays

The 21st Anniversary Holiday Survey of retail spending and trends, commissioned by Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, reports that "gift cards are expected to continue to be the top gift purchase, with approximately two-thirds (66 percent) of consumers planning to buy them, roughly the same as last year. However, holiday shoppers are planning on buying more of them: this year, consumers intend to buy an average of 4.6 cards, an increase from the 3.9 they bought last year." However, the survey suggests that gift cards may present a "mixed bag for retailers." "Our survey showed that, as a result of buying gift cards last year, 50 percent of consumers spent less time shopping during the holidays and 41 percent bought fewer spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment items," said Pat Conroy, vice chairman and national managing principal of Deloitte's Consumer Business practice. "Successful retailers can benefit from gift-card-and-product bundling, incentives for shoppers to buy additional products while in the store, and other strategies to upsell and cross-sell with gift cards."