Consumers are looking to spend more on gift cards this holiday season. Analysis from Folio reveals a 46% uplift in gift cards added by users to their digital wallet during Thanksgiving week. Amazon, Starbucks, AppStore and Walmart have become some of the most popular gift cards of choice, as consumer attitudes shift towards convenient gifting methods. Yet, $15.3BN worth of gift cards are recorded to have been left unspent in 2021, according to data by BankRate¹.
With growing concern of rising cost of living and amid the high price of goods, there is unused money in gift cards people are overlooking. A welcoming news to consumer wallets. Amongst those surveyed, Gen Z (85%) and Millennials (82%) are amongst the worst culprits for holding onto gift cards. Due to expiry dates, companies going out of business and value of unused sums dropping due to rising inflation, holding onto gift cards can be an unfavourable matter. Of those surveyed, only 24% said they regifted a gift card, voucher or store credit if unused.
However, gift card purchases are here to stay. As 83% of consumers wanted to send gift cards over physical gifts. Surveyed shoppers plan to buy on average 15 gift cards per person. This has been driven by consumers who are increasingly worried about shipping delays. Gift cards provide consumers the gift of choice by alleviating the need to return and exchange items².
The same younger generation are reported to be driving the growth in retail and ecommerce. With 59% of consumers revealing to have increased their use of digital wallets. Folio has seen a 54% uplift in new digital wallet users this year.
Nik Maguire, Chief Marketing Officer of Folio said “With the festive season in full swing, people are really looking forward to gifting and shopping. We wanted to introduce our wallet to keep friends and family organised amongst the holiday chaos and avoid unspent gift cards. We created a solution where users can simply scan their gift cards onto their mobile device for use on the go.”
Folio, the independent digital wallet app on IOS and Android
Folio is the digital wallet for all your essentials in one app. From passports, gift cards, loyalty cards, custom documents and more. Folio is the perfect solution for secure storage and easy access. Scan your loyalty cards and collect points, save your gift cards, validate your identity or membership status, whenever one needs.
Folio’s wallet technology enables users to simply take a photo of their cards to retrieve readable barcodes for use in stores. A hassle free card number copy and paste function for a fast and easy checkout online. Introduces a new way to connect with friends and family to share gift cards, membership cards, documents and more!