Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Gift cards used to be a last-minute purchase when consumers were stuck for a last-minute gift, but they’re now a gift selected because it gives the recipient more buying choices and flexibility. The gift card marketplace continues to evolve and we’ve got some research and innovations to share to keep you up-to-date on gift card trends. CEB reported US gift card sales in 2015 totaled more than$129.7 billion, a 6.3% increase over 2014 sales of $122 billion.

A new research report by CashStar showed 91% of consumers were happy with their gift cards. The same report showed digital gift cards were the biggest growing gift card segment up 26% to $7.1 billion in 2015.

According to the Incentive Research Foundation, another big trend in gift cards in 2016 is the increase in luxury gift cards for purchasing electronics (cited by 31% of respondents), open-loop gift cards (28%), luggage (24%), and watches (23%).

Lyft and Starbucks launched a joint gift card promotion each selling the other’s gift cards. C-stores have seen the impact of technology and are experimenting with digital and mobile cards. Swych, Inc launched an  innovative digital gift platform and iOS mobile app for US consumers who can use a unique app to send “Swychable” gift cards redeemable at favorite retailers. Research by National Gift Card Corp shows 72% of sales came from three categories: big-box retailers (29%), open loop rewards cards such as Visa and AMEX (23%) and entertainment cards (10%)....

Customer brand loyalty is a rich and complex subject to grasp, but there is a lot of data around the subject. For your convenience, we've compiled dozens of statistics to help light the way - from how many people are active in loyalty programs to what they're looking to get out of them and how they'd like to be communicated with. We've tried to make this list as relevant as possible, which means we combed through recent research with a focus on the US (with the occasional global stat thrown in).

These stats are culled from a variety of sources, and we've provided source links for each of them (though some are gateway pages that require you to register or submit your information to receive the actual research). Sometimes the data conflict with other sources - we'll leave it up to you to decipher which is most accurate.

We'll keep this list updated on a weekly basis with the latest and greatest. If you know of a stat we're missing, or want your own research included in our collection, leave us a note in the comments....