InComm Payments' 2022 gift card review found stronger preference for buying in physical big-box stores and greater use of cards for money management. Published in April 2023, the report combines the company's quarterly consumer surveys for 2022 and compares them with the previous year.
Finding the desired card and hearing about offers
The average number of closed-loop cards purchased increased 20%, while the number of closed-loop shoppers who also bought an open-loop card increased 125%. Some 43% of shoppers who purchased an open-loop card did so at least monthly. These changes are reported as year-over-year percentages, not percentage-point movements.
Big-box stores became the most preferred purchase destination for both types, ending a two-year period when online was the preferred channel for closed-loop cards. Pharmacy grew in popularity while grocery declined in the reported channel comparison.
When shoppers could not immediately find the card they wanted, they were 9% less likely to look for it online, 30% more likely to ask an employee and 23% more likely to try another retailer than in the previous year. InComm linked those results with the importance of organised displays and stock availability.
Deals and promotions motivated 20% of open-loop shoppers and 15% of closed-loop shoppers. Email and in-store displays were the leading preferred ways to hear about those offers, according to the report.
Promotions motivated different gift-card shopper groups
Reported motivation to buy in the 2022 consumer research.
% of respective shopper group
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
Source
Provider-published quarterly-survey summary for 2022, compared with 2021 where stated. The reviewed summary does not disclose sample size, exact field dates, respondent recruitment, weighting or uncertainty. Open-loop and closed-loop groups can overlap. Historical reported behaviour, not October 2026 prevalence, market share, audited sales or a causal test. These are shares reporting a purchase motivation, not percentage changes or an exclusive partition.
Show data tableHide data table
| Category | Reported survey result |
|---|---|
| Open-loop shoppers | 20 % of respective shopper group |
| Closed-loop shoppers | 15 % of respective shopper group |
Self-use is a different purpose from gift giving
Closed-loop cards were more often intended as gifts in 2022, with 62% bought for others. At the same time, the use of closed-loop cards for money management increased 24% year over year. Digital content, grocery, gaming and online retail cards were among categories more often bought for self-use than for gifting.
For open-loop cards, use for money management increased 17%, while use as a banking alternative increased 25%. The self-use consumers discussed in that section bought an average of nine open-loop cards per quarter.
Reported growth in using gift cards for money management
Two card-type results in the same annual research summary.
% year-over-year change
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
Source
Provider-published quarterly-survey summary for 2022, compared with 2021 where stated. The reviewed summary does not disclose sample size, exact field dates, respondent recruitment, weighting or uncertainty. Open-loop and closed-loop groups can overlap. Historical reported behaviour, not October 2026 prevalence, market share, audited sales or a causal test. These are relative year-over-year changes, not prevalence shares or percentage-point increases. Prior-year counts and the exact underlying use denominator are unavailable; no starting values or sales totals are reconstructed.
Show data tableHide data table
| Category | Reported survey result |
|---|---|
| Closed-loop money-management use | 24 % year-over-year change |
| Open-loop money-management use | 17 % year-over-year change |
The findings describe behaviour in 2022. InComm presents them as input for merchants' assortment, displays and promotions, rather than as a forecast of the following year's card sales.
The public summary identifies quarterly surveys but does not give the sample size, recruitment, weighting or exact field dates. Its shopper groups and measures have different bases. Motivation percentages describe reported reasons; money-management figures describe relative change from the prior year. Neither can establish current market size or a causal gain from a retailer’s display. [1]
In this article
Suzie Elis
Suzie Elis covers gift card products, digital gifting and distribution for Gift Card News.