Gift Cards Overwhelmingly Popular Last-Minute Gift Option With Public, But Not With Retailers

April 16, 2010 - PRLog -- Despite gift cards being universally popular as a gift option with consumers, only one in 10 retailers currently stock them, with just over half saying gift cards have nothing to do with their business.

The online survey conducted by the gift news blog, Gifts By The Stars at http://gifts-by-the-stars-online.com found that 98.5% of respondents have bought a plastic gift card for a friend, family member or colleague.

"According to the survey, 83.1% say they think gift cards are an easy gift option, with 78.5% saying they're great for last-minute gift emergencies, and 75.4% believe they're quick," said Elizabeth Ball of the Gifts By The Stars blog.

"Respondents also saw gift cards as affordable (38.5%), safe (26.2%), and fun (20.0%), although very few perceived them as a unique gift option (4.6%)," she said.

The survey found people were most likely to purchase gift cards valued at $50 (81.8%), $20 (63.6%), $30 (50.0%), $100 (40.9%) and $10 (31.8%)  with 13.7% opting to spend $150 or more.

"Surprisingly though, even though almost everyone has bought gift cards, very few retailers stock them," said Elizabeth Ball.

"An amazing 52.6% said gift cards had nothing to do with their business."

Only 10.6% of retailers sold gift cards in their bricks-and-mortar stores and/or online, with only 5.3% planning to sell them in the near future. Paper gift certificates are much more popular with 19.3% of retailers selling them online or in-store, while electronic gift certificates were sold by 12.3% of retailers through their websites.

The survey found that customers expected to see gift cards displayed in a bricks-and-mortar store in their own box next to the cash register (44.8%), hanging on a rack (35.8%), on the wall behind the cash register (14.9%) and on the shelves in their own box (4.5%).

"This indicates customers want gift cards in easy reach to pick up one or two when they shop but retailers are so doubtful about the value of gift cards that 54.5% would order 20 gift cards or less at a time, with only 36.4% willing to order more than 50 gift cards," said Elizabeth Ball.

"Clearly, retailers are missing out on this easy, impulse purchase gift option by not stocking gift cards," she said.

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Elizabeth Ball writes the gift news blog Gifts By The Stars at http://gifts-by-the-stars-online.com and is the founder of astrology gift report company at http://www.itsinthestarsonline.com which has been producing beautifully presented personalized hardcover astrology reports for couples and parents for anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas, christenings, engagements, new babies, weddings, and Valentines Day since 2005.