Canonical URL: https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/ --- description: BHN’s U.S. holiday study links gift-card buying plans with budgeting and loyalty redemption as shoppers reduce expected gift spending. title: BHN survey finds gift cards in 93% of holiday budget setters’ plans image: https://giftcard.news/images/social/v1/bhn-survey-finds-gift-cards-93-holiday-budget-setters-plans-b06720427627f21a9c1c895426c8ec31.jpg --- 1. [Home](https://giftcard.news/) 2. [Research & Trends](https://giftcard.news/research-trends/) # BHN survey finds gift cards in 93% of holiday budget setters’ plans BHN’s U.S. holiday study links gift-card buying plans with budgeting and loyalty redemption as shoppers reduce expected gift spending. By [Oliver Reed](https://giftcard.news/author/oliver-reed/) September 22, 2026 8 min read [ Google News ](https://google.com/preferences/source?q=giftcard.news&utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news) Share [ ](https://x.com/intent/post?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgiftcard.news%2Fresearch-trends%2Fbhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026%2F%3Futm%5Fsource%3Dx%26utm%5Fmedium%3Dsocial&text=BHN+survey+finds+gift+cards+in+93%25+of+holiday+budget+setters%E2%80%99+plans&utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news "X") [ ](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgiftcard.news%2Fresearch-trends%2Fbhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026%2F%3Futm%5Fsource%3Dlinkedin%26utm%5Fmedium%3Dsocial&utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news "LinkedIn") [ ](https://wa.me/?text=BHN+survey+finds+gift+cards+in+93%25+of+holiday+budget+setters%E2%80%99+plans+https%3A%2F%2Fgiftcard.news%2Fresearch-trends%2Fbhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026%2F%3Futm%5Fsource%3Dwhatsapp%26utm%5Fmedium%3Dsocial&utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news "WhatsApp") ![Bar chart showing gift-card purchase plans among holiday budget setters at 93% and shoppers without a holiday budget at 78%](https://giftcard.news/images/variants/v1/bhn-survey-finds-gift-cards-93-holiday-budget-setters-plans-bar-chart-2-w1280.webp) BHN’s July 2026 U.S. holiday survey found higher gift-card purchase intentions among shoppers setting a budget. The association does not establish causation. Photo: Gift Card News, based on Blackhawk Network research Ninety-three percent of U.S. holiday shoppers who set a budget plan to buy gift cards, compared with 78% of those without a budget, according to [Blackhawk Network](https://giftcard.news/company/blackhawk-network/)’s new holiday research. The report, published on September 22 and publicised in an October 5 release, puts gift cards at the centre of a tighter spending plan. [\[S01\]](#article-source-1)[\[S02\]](#article-source-2)[\[S03\]](#article-source-3) The company surveyed 2,307 U.S. adults online between July 23 and 28\. Respondents had bought gifts during the preceding 12 months and expected to shop during the 2026 holiday season. Eighty-two percent said they were setting a holiday budget. The findings describe those shoppers’ intentions, rather than the general population or completed holiday transactions. [\[S02\]](#article-source-2) ## Smaller budgets, a larger role for cards The data behind the story ### Gift-card purchase plans differ with holiday budgeting Share planning to buy gift cards, among surveyed shoppers with and without a holiday budget. [\[S01\]](#article-source-1)[\[S02\]](#article-source-2) Plan to buy gift cards % Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table. Sources [\[S01\]](#article-source-1); [\[S02\]](#article-source-2) BHN online survey, July 23-28, 2026, of 2,307 U.S. adults 18+ who had purchased gifts in the preceding 12 months and planned to shop during holiday 2026\. Recruitment, weighting, item subgroup sizes and margin of error are not disclosed. These are separate budgeting groups, not complementary response categories. Budgeting and card-buying plans are associated; the survey does not establish causation or completed purchases. Show data tableHide data table Scroll left or right to see all columns __Gift-card purchase plans differ with holiday budgeting (%)__ | Category | Plan to buy gift cards | | ---------------------------- | ---------------------- | | Setting a holiday budget | 93% | | Not setting a holiday budget | 78% | Average planned spending on holiday gifts was $721, 3% below the previous year’s comparison. Gift cards represented 32% of the overall intended gift budget. Among households earning less than $40,000, planned gift spending was $410, down 13%, with 36% allocated to cards. The corresponding card share was 29% for households earning at least $80,000\. [\[S01\]](#article-source-1)[\[S02\]](#article-source-2) The data behind the story ### Lower-income shoppers allocate more of their gift budget to cards Gift-card share of planned holiday gift spending, by annual household income, from report page 8\. [\[S01\]](#article-source-1) Planned gift budget allocated to gift cards % Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table. Source [\[S01\]](#article-source-1) BHN online survey, July 23-28, 2026, of 2,307 U.S. adults 18+ who had purchased gifts in the preceding 12 months and planned to shop during holiday 2026\. Recruitment, weighting, item subgroup sizes and margin of error are not disclosed. Percentages are allocations within each income group’s intended gift budget, not the groups’ shares of total gift-card sales. Different total budgets mean a higher percentage does not establish higher gift-card dollars. Overall reported allocation is 32%; no respondent-level spend is reconstructed. Show data tableHide data table Scroll left or right to see all columns __Lower-income shoppers allocate more of their gift budget to cards (%)__ | Category | Planned gift budget allocated to gift cards | | ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------- | | Under $40,000 | 36% | | $40,000 to under $80,000 | 34% | | $80,000 or more | 29% | A higher allocation to gift cards does not by itself mean higher dollar sales. A larger share of a shrinking gift budget can leave the value spent on cards under pressure. The comparison between budget setters and other shoppers also shows an association, without establishing that setting a budget causes card buying. ## Loyalty balances provide another route into gifting Loyalty balances provide another potential route into the category. Half of respondents planned to redeem most or all of their loyalty points for holiday shopping. BHN reported that 61% of younger shoppers and 55% of older shoppers use loyalty points for gift cards; among those shoppers, 70% intended to give the resulting cards to somebody else. [\[S02\]](#article-source-2) The data behind the story ### Loyalty points fund gift cards in both age groups Surveyed shoppers using loyalty points for gift cards, reported on page 19 and in the issuer release. [\[S01\]](#article-source-1)[\[S02\]](#article-source-2) Use loyalty points for gift cards % Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table. Sources [\[S01\]](#article-source-1); [\[S02\]](#article-source-2) BHN online survey, July 23-28, 2026, of 2,307 U.S. adults 18+ who had purchased gifts in the preceding 12 months and planned to shop during holiday 2026\. Recruitment, weighting, item subgroup sizes and margin of error are not disclosed. Age definitions are the report’s Gen Z/Millennial and Gen X/Boomer groupings for 2026\. The 70% who plan to give resulting cards to others is conditional on point-to-card users and is not an additional population share. The source does not establish an age-group difference is statistically significant. Show data tableHide data table Scroll left or right to see all columns __Loyalty points fund gift cards in both age groups (%)__ | Category | Use loyalty points for gift cards | | ---------------------------- | --------------------------------- | | Younger shoppers: ages 18-45 | 61% | | Older shoppers: ages 46-80 | 55% | The report defines younger shoppers as ages 18 to 45 and older shoppers as ages 46 to 80\. Its global research covered 22,754 consumers in 20 countries, but the figures in this report concern the U.S. sample. It does not disclose recruitment details, weighting or margins of error. [\[S01\]](#article-source-1) BHN supplies gift-card issuance, distribution and rewards services, giving it a commercial interest in how holiday value reaches retailers. For programme operators, the findings identify prospective demand from both direct purchases and points redemption. Actual loaded value and completed redemptions will show how much of that interest becomes business. [\[S02\]](#article-source-2) ## The previous holiday peak offers a timing cue A separate Google Trends check adds historical search context to the operational calendar. In a single U.S. Web Search comparison requested for October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026, both English terms reached their highest returned weekly score during December 21-27, 2025: 100 for “gift card” and 28 for “gift cards”. These are jointly normalized search-interest indexes, not percentages of holiday shoppers. [\[S04\]](#article-source-4)[\[S05\]](#article-source-5)[\[S06\]](#article-source-6) Your free reader account ## Continue reading for free. Create your account or sign in to get unlimited access. Continue with LinkedIn Continue with Google Continue with Facebook No payment required. 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Sign in](https://giftcard.news/login/?returnTo=%2Fresearch-trends%2Fbhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026%2F) ## In this article ### Companies * [Blackhawk Network](https://giftcard.news/company/blackhawk-network/) ### Sources and documents * [\[S01\] Complete original 2026 holiday research report, methodology and pages 8 and 19](https://244294800.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na2.net/hubfs/244294800/COM-Global-Holiday-Research-2026.pdf?utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news) — Blackhawk Network * [\[S02\] Issuer-authored October 5 Business Wire release, full methodology and additional results](https://investor.wedbush.com/wedbush/article/bizwire-2026-10-5-holiday-shoppers-turn-to-gift-cards-as-budgets-tighten?utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news) — Blackhawk Network via Business Wire * [\[S03\] Original report publication date, September 22](https://blackhawknetwork.com/resources/ebook/gc-egc-ungated/all/sep2026/get-ahead-of-this-years-holiday-shopping-trends?utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news) — Blackhawk Network * [\[S04\] U.S. joint comparison of gift card and gift cards, closed historical window](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=gift+card%2Cgift+cards&geo=US&tz=0&date=2025-10-01+2026-09-30&cat=0&gprop=&utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news) — Google Trends, retrieved through SearchAPI.io * [\[S05\] Sampling, normalization, zero values and limits of search-interest data](https://support.google.com/trends/answer/4365533?hl=en&utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news) — Google * [\[S06\] Google Trends TIMESERIES retrieval parameters](https://www.searchapi.io/docs/google-trends?utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news) — SearchAPI.io Share [ ](https://x.com/intent/post?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgiftcard.news%2Fresearch-trends%2Fbhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026%2F%3Futm%5Fsource%3Dx%26utm%5Fmedium%3Dsocial&text=BHN+survey+finds+gift+cards+in+93%25+of+holiday+budget+setters%E2%80%99+plans&utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news "X") [ ](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgiftcard.news%2Fresearch-trends%2Fbhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026%2F%3Futm%5Fsource%3Dlinkedin%26utm%5Fmedium%3Dsocial&utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news "LinkedIn") [ ](https://wa.me/?text=BHN+survey+finds+gift+cards+in+93%25+of+holiday+budget+setters%E2%80%99+plans+https%3A%2F%2Fgiftcard.news%2Fresearch-trends%2Fbhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026%2F%3Futm%5Fsource%3Dwhatsapp%26utm%5Fmedium%3Dsocial&utm%5Fsource=giftcard.news&utm%5Fcampaign=giftcard.news "WhatsApp") ![Portrait of Oliver Reed](https://giftcard.news/images/variants/v1/oliver-reed-editorial-portrait-w320.webp) About the author ## [Oliver Reed](https://giftcard.news/author/oliver-reed/) Journalist — Industry Deals & Research Oliver Reed covers industry acquisitions, investment and market research for Gift Card News. 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[Find a provider ](https://giftcard.news/find-a-provider/) ## Related articles [Research & Trends](https://giftcard.news/research-trends/) News ### [InComm’s holiday survey puts gift cards first in U.S. purchase plans](https://giftcard.news/research-trends/incomm-2026-holiday-gift-card-purchase-plans/) [Emma Carter](https://giftcard.news/author/emma-carter/) October 21, 2026 5 min [Research & Trends](https://giftcard.news/research-trends/) News ### [Gift cards lead NRF’s 2026 holiday wish list at 47%](https://giftcard.news/research-trends/nrf-2026-holiday-gift-card-wish-list/) [Emma Carter](https://giftcard.news/author/emma-carter/) October 20, 2026 3 min [Research & Trends](https://giftcard.news/research-trends/) News ### [iGift’s three-brand index records a lower Roblox discount in week 42](https://giftcard.news/research-trends/igift-week42-2026-gift-card-discount-index/) [Oliver Reed](https://giftcard.news/author/oliver-reed/) October 19, 2026 4 min ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://giftcard.news/#publisher","name":"Gift Card News","url":"https://giftcard.news/","description":"News and analysis covering gift cards, retail, loyalty, rewards and payments worldwide.","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://giftcard.news/icon-512.png","contentUrl":"https://giftcard.news/icon-512.png","width":512,"height":512,"@id":"https://giftcard.news/#logo"},"publishingPrinciples":"https://giftcard.news/editorial-policy/","correctionsPolicy":"https://giftcard.news/editorial-policy/"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://giftcard.news/#website","url":"https://giftcard.news/","name":"Gift Card News","description":"News and analysis covering gift cards, retail, loyalty, rewards and payments worldwide.","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/#publisher"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https://giftcard.news/search/?q={search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https://giftcard.news/author/oliver-reed/#person","name":"Oliver Reed","url":"https://giftcard.news/author/oliver-reed/","description":"Oliver Reed covers industry acquisitions, investment and market research for Gift Card News.","jobTitle":"Journalist — Industry Deals & Research","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://giftcard.news/images/oliver-reed-editorial-portrait.webp","contentUrl":"https://giftcard.news/images/oliver-reed-editorial-portrait.webp","width":1254,"height":1254,"caption":"Illustrated portrait representing the Oliver Reed editorial profile.","@id":"https://giftcard.news/images/oliver-reed-editorial-portrait.webp#image","encodingFormat":"image/webp","description":"Illustrated portrait for Oliver Reed, Gift Card News","creditText":"Gift Card News / AI-generated illustration"}},{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://giftcard.news/images/bhn-survey-finds-gift-cards-93-holiday-budget-setters-plans-bar-chart-2.webp","contentUrl":"https://giftcard.news/images/bhn-survey-finds-gift-cards-93-holiday-budget-setters-plans-bar-chart-2.webp","width":1800,"height":1350,"caption":"BHN’s July 2026 U.S. holiday survey found higher gift-card purchase intentions among shoppers setting a budget. 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[S01][S02]\n\nBHN online survey, July 23-28, 2026, of 2,307 U.S. adults 18+ who had purchased gifts in the preceding 12 months and planned to shop during holiday 2026. Recruitment, weighting, item subgroup sizes and margin of error are not disclosed. These are separate budgeting groups, not complementary response categories. Budgeting and card-buying plans are associated; the survey does not establish causation or completed purchases.","inLanguage":"en","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/#dataset"},"isAccessibleForFree":true,"variableMeasured":[{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"Plan to buy gift cards","unitText":"%"}],"isBasedOn":[{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"[S01]","url":"https://244294800.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na2.net/hubfs/244294800/COM-Global-Holiday-Research-2026.pdf"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"[S02]","url":"https://investor.wedbush.com/wedbush/article/bizwire-2026-10-5-holiday-shoppers-turn-to-gift-cards-as-budgets-tighten"}]},{"@type":"Dataset","@id":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/#article-figure-2-dataset","url":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/#article-figure-2","name":"Lower-income shoppers allocate more of their gift budget to cards","description":"Tabular values displayed in the figure \"Lower-income shoppers allocate more of their gift budget to cards\" and its accompanying data table.\n\nGift-card share of planned holiday gift spending, by annual household income, from report page 8. [S01]\n\nBHN online survey, July 23-28, 2026, of 2,307 U.S. adults 18+ who had purchased gifts in the preceding 12 months and planned to shop during holiday 2026. Recruitment, weighting, item subgroup sizes and margin of error are not disclosed. Percentages are allocations within each income group’s intended gift budget, not the groups’ shares of total gift-card sales. Different total budgets mean a higher percentage does not establish higher gift-card dollars. Overall reported allocation is 32%; no respondent-level spend is reconstructed.","inLanguage":"en","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/#dataset"},"isAccessibleForFree":true,"variableMeasured":[{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"Planned gift budget allocated to gift cards","unitText":"%"}],"isBasedOn":[{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"[S01]","url":"https://244294800.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na2.net/hubfs/244294800/COM-Global-Holiday-Research-2026.pdf"}]},{"@type":"Dataset","@id":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/#article-figure-3-dataset","url":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/#article-figure-3","name":"Loyalty points fund gift cards in both age groups","description":"Tabular values displayed in the figure \"Loyalty points fund gift cards in both age groups\" and its accompanying data table.\n\nSurveyed shoppers using loyalty points for gift cards, reported on page 19 and in the issuer release. [S01][S02]\n\nBHN online survey, July 23-28, 2026, of 2,307 U.S. adults 18+ who had purchased gifts in the preceding 12 months and planned to shop during holiday 2026. Recruitment, weighting, item subgroup sizes and margin of error are not disclosed. Age definitions are the report’s Gen Z/Millennial and Gen X/Boomer groupings for 2026. The 70% who plan to give resulting cards to others is conditional on point-to-card users and is not an additional population share. The source does not establish an age-group difference is statistically significant.","inLanguage":"en","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/#dataset"},"isAccessibleForFree":true,"variableMeasured":[{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"Use loyalty points for gift cards","unitText":"%"}],"isBasedOn":[{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"[S01]","url":"https://244294800.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na2.net/hubfs/244294800/COM-Global-Holiday-Research-2026.pdf"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"[S02]","url":"https://investor.wedbush.com/wedbush/article/bizwire-2026-10-5-holiday-shoppers-turn-to-gift-cards-as-budgets-tighten"}]},{"@type":"Dataset","@id":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/#article-figure-4-dataset","url":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/#article-figure-4","name":"U.S. gift-card search interest peaked in Christmas week","description":"Tabular values displayed in the figure \"U.S. gift-card search interest peaked in Christmas week\" and its accompanying data table.\n\nLiteral English terms retrieved together from Google Trends through SearchAPI.io on October 16, 2026. Displayed complete weekly buckets: October 5, 2025 to September 26, 2026. [S04][S05][S06]\n\nRequested October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026; United States; all categories (cat 0); Web Search; timezone UTC (tz 0). Weekly category labels show bucket start dates. Two returned weeks crossing the requested boundaries were omitted without rescaling; raw response retains all 53 weeks. The 100 is the peak in this joint comparison. Sampled normalized search interest is not buyers, purchase intentions, absolute search volume, sales or market share. The terms can overlap and must not be added. No partial-data indicator was returned. Historical seasonality does not forecast 2026 holiday sales.","inLanguage":"en","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/#dataset"},"isAccessibleForFree":false,"variableMeasured":[{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"gift card","unitText":"Relative search interest (0-100)"},{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"gift cards","unitText":"Relative search interest (0-100)"}],"isBasedOn":[{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"[S04] Google Trends, retrieved through SearchAPI.io","url":"https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=gift%20card%2Cgift%20cards&geo=US&tz=0&date=2025-10-01 2026-09-30&cat=0&gprop="},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"[S05] Google Trends methodology","url":"https://support.google.com/trends/answer/4365533?hl=en"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"[S06] SearchAPI.io retrieval documentation","url":"https://www.searchapi.io/docs/google-trends"}]},{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/#article","url":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/","headline":"BHN survey finds gift cards in 93% of holiday budget setters’ plans","description":"BHN’s U.S. holiday study links gift-card buying plans with budgeting and loyalty redemption as shoppers reduce expected gift spending.","datePublished":"2026-09-22T00:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-16T10:39:45.699Z","inLanguage":"en","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/#webpage"},"isPartOf":{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/#website"},"isAccessibleForFree":false,"hasPart":[{"@type":"WebPageElement","isAccessibleForFree":false,"cssSelector":".reader-restricted"},{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/#dataset"}],"image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://giftcard.news/images/bhn-survey-finds-gift-cards-93-holiday-budget-setters-plans-bar-chart-2.webp","contentUrl":"https://giftcard.news/images/bhn-survey-finds-gift-cards-93-holiday-budget-setters-plans-bar-chart-2.webp","width":1800,"height":1350,"caption":"BHN’s July 2026 U.S. holiday survey found higher gift-card purchase intentions among shoppers setting a budget. The association does not establish causation.","@id":"https://giftcard.news/images/bhn-survey-finds-gift-cards-93-holiday-budget-setters-plans-bar-chart-2.webp#image","encodingFormat":"image/webp","description":"Bar chart showing gift-card purchase plans among holiday budget setters at 93% and shoppers without a holiday budget at 78%","creditText":"Gift Card News, based on Blackhawk Network research","isBasedOn":"https://blackhawknetwork.com/resources/ebook/gc-egc-ungated/all/sep2026/get-ahead-of-this-years-holiday-shopping-trends"}],"articleSection":"Research & Trends","keywords":["Blackhawk Network"],"mentions":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://giftcard.news/company/blackhawk-network/#entity","name":"Blackhawk Network","url":"https://giftcard.news/company/blackhawk-network/"}],"wordCount":1690,"citation":[{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"[S01] Complete original 2026 holiday research report, methodology and pages 8 and 19","url":"https://244294800.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na2.net/hubfs/244294800/COM-Global-Holiday-Research-2026.pdf","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Blackhawk Network"}},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"[S02] Issuer-authored October 5 Business Wire release, full methodology and additional results","url":"https://investor.wedbush.com/wedbush/article/bizwire-2026-10-5-holiday-shoppers-turn-to-gift-cards-as-budgets-tighten","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Blackhawk Network via Business Wire"}},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"[S03] Original report publication date, September 22","url":"https://blackhawknetwork.com/resources/ebook/gc-egc-ungated/all/sep2026/get-ahead-of-this-years-holiday-shopping-trends","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Blackhawk Network"}},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"[S04] U.S. joint comparison of gift card and gift cards, closed historical window","url":"https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=gift%20card%2Cgift%20cards&geo=US&tz=0&date=2025-10-01 2026-09-30&cat=0&gprop=","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Google Trends, retrieved through SearchAPI.io"}},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"[S05] Sampling, normalization, zero values and limits of search-interest data","url":"https://support.google.com/trends/answer/4365533?hl=en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Google"}},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"[S06] Google Trends TIMESERIES retrieval parameters","url":"https://www.searchapi.io/docs/google-trends","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"SearchAPI.io"}}],"author":[{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/author/oliver-reed/#person"}],"publisher":{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/#publisher"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/#webpage","url":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/","name":"BHN survey finds gift cards in 93% of holiday budget setters’ plans","description":"BHN’s U.S. holiday study links gift-card buying plans with budgeting and loyalty redemption as shoppers reduce expected gift spending.","datePublished":"2026-09-22T00:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-16T10:39:45.699Z","inLanguage":"en","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/#website"},"mainEntity":{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/#article"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/#breadcrumbs"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://giftcard.news/images/bhn-survey-finds-gift-cards-93-holiday-budget-setters-plans-bar-chart-2.webp#image"}},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/#breadcrumbs","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://giftcard.news/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Research & Trends","item":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"BHN survey finds gift cards in 93% of holiday budget setters’ plans","item":"https://giftcard.news/research-trends/bhn-holiday-budget-gift-card-survey-2026/"}]}]} ```