The total holiday gift card sales value increased in 2022 though the total number of cards sold decreased and card sales were hurt by a holiday winter storm.
Those are top findings of the Paytronix Gift Card Data report which also revealed QSR card sales dipped while fine dining cards sales increased, according to a press release on the report.
On the digital front, digital gift card sales are continuing to gain in popularity and overall more consumers are opting for a higher-value gift card.
“An early look at the data shows that the shift to digital gift cards is in full swing and that dining trends across the country continue to trend towards sit-down concepts. Despite the swing to digital, an arctic blast translated to lower gift card sales on a key shopping day, demonstrating that gift card sales are not insulated from factors such as weather,” stated the release.
More dollars spent on gift cards between Black Friday and Christmas Eve in 2022 than any year since 2019.
One trend of note in the recent holiday season was the impact of a severe winter storm just before Christmas. Dec. 23 is typically the best day for gift card sales, and while this held true for 2022, gift card sales suffered significantly, with the number of cards sold per day down 32.6% from 2019, down 23% since 2022 and down 10.9% since 2020 during the height of the pandemic.
