Planned purchases accounted for 68% of gift card buying in InComm Payments' 2024 research, compared with 21% described as spontaneous and 11% as last-minute purchases. The company published its annual review in April 2025, drawing on quarterly surveys of more than 6,400 gift card shoppers during 2024.

InComm reported that the planned-purchase share rose 13% year over year. That is the change as expressed in the company's report, rather than a statement that the share increased by 13 percentage points. Tammy McGill, director of market research, presented the findings as a way to examine how consumers selected and used gift cards across the year.

Convenience influenced 62% of open-loop card shoppers and 59% of closed-loop card shoppers. These figures relate to the respective groups in the research and help distinguish the role of a broadly accepted prepaid reward from a card tied to a particular retailer or brand.

The study found that 71% of cards were bought for other people and 29% for the purchaser's own use. InComm reported year-over-year growth of 9% in gift

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