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U.S. merchants achieved higher performance scores for their gift card programs in 2025, according to Blackhawk Network’s eighth annual review of the programs.
Staples Inc. led all merchants with a score of 104%, followed by Amazon.com with a score of 101% and Best Buy Co. Inc. at 99%. Cosmetics retailer Sephora USA Inc. and Target Corp. rounded out the top five with scores of 99% each. Staples and Amazon scored more than 100% because merchants could earn bonus points.
Blackhawk attributes the overall increase in scores to merchants’ willingness to invest in mobile delivery, personalization through artificial intelligence, and increased payment flexibility. Investing in those areas reflects merchants’ commitment to meeting consumers where and how they prefer to shop, according to Blackhawk.
Blackhawk says it evaluated gift card programs for 100 merchants across 17 vertical markets and using 126 unique criteria. The study was conducted in collaboration with NAPCO Research.
When evaluating merchants collectively by vertical market, nearly all verticals saw year-over-year increases in composite scores. In many cases, composite scores increased by double digits from the previous year. Consumer electronics/office stores topped the list with a composite score 92%, followed by health/beauty merchants with a score of 82% and mass merchants at 77%.
Consumer-electronics and office-supply merchants achieved the highest scores due to their “exceptional discoverability, flexible gifting options, and strong integration with consumer preferences,” the study says. Department stores and entertainment rounded out the top five, each with scores of 75%.
Merchants were also evaluated based on the user experience for the various devices through which consumers can access their gift card accounts. Using four device types, (desktop, mobile Web, mobile app, and device-agnostic), merchants that were evaluated posted a composite score of 68%. Among device types, mobile Web posted a score of 78%, up nine percentage points from the previous year. The increase was the highest among the four device types. Desktops tied mobile Web at 78%, a 6-point year-over-year increase. Device-agnostic gift card programs posted a score of 63%, followed by mobile apps at 50%, up 5 points from the prior year.
One area where merchants tend to lag lies in the use of artificial intelligence to drive recommendations to gift card holders. Just 5% of merchants have adopted AI-driven recommendations. Social commerce and promotions also represent untapped opportunities for merchants to improve their gift card programs. Merchants posted an average score for social-media marketing of 2%, and posted a mark of 33% in using gift cards within promotions.
