Survey: Gift Cards Are Growing in Popularity As Customer Incentives

Customer incentives represent a growing new niche for gift cards, according to the results of a new survey. Of some 68 decision-makers canvassed, 52% said they are likely to offer gift cards as a customer incentive in the next 12 months. Of all industries represented in the survey, restaurants represent the most popular sector for incentive-based gift cards, at 67%, followed by specialty stores at 56%, department stores at 45%, and large discount stores at 40%. The survey was conducted in April by First Data Corp.'s Prepaid Services unit. The 68 managers surveyed work at companies of 100 or more employees. Of those companies already offering gift cards as customer incentives, 20% said they will increase this use of the card in the coming year, according to the survey. Some 10% say they offer some form of customer incentives now, with gift cards second to product or service discounts as the most often used incentive. First Data Prepaid Services includes the Denver-based processor's ValueLink and Money Network services, which embrace stored-value programs for both merchants and banks as well as payroll cards.