In InComm Payments' 2024 research, 68% of surveyed gift card shoppers said they planned purchases in advance, 21% described their purchases as spontaneous and 11% as last-minute before a specific occasion. These are shopper responses, not shares of card units or transactions. The company published its annual review in April 2025, drawing on quarterly surveys of more than 6,400 gift card shoppers during 2024.
How gift card shoppers described purchase planning
InComm’s four quarterly 2024 surveys collected responses from more than 6,400 gift card shoppers.
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Source
Percentages describe surveyed shoppers, not the number or value of cards sold. The article has a US market context but does not separately document recruitment geography, quarterly sample allocation or weights. Sponsor research is not independent sales measurement.
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| Category | Reported respondents |
|---|---|
| Planned in advance | 68% |
| Spontaneous | 21% |
| Last-minute before an occasion | 11% |
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 gift card shoppers said the cards they purchased were given to someone else, while 29% said they bought cards for self-use. InComm reported year-over-year growth of 9% in gift giving and a 17% decline in self-use. Among respondents giving cards to others, 86% identified family members as recipients and 14% identified other acquaintances.
Brand selection remained significant. Some 86% of gift givers said it was very or extremely important to know the specific brand the recipient wanted. InComm noted that an unavailable brand could prompt a shopper to leave the store, connecting assortment decisions with the retailer's ability to complete a planned gift purchase.
The research also examined packaging. It found that 34% of shoppers almost always bought packaging with a gift card, 21% did so frequently and 25% sometimes did so. Separately, 47% considered it very important for packaging to be located near the main gift card display.
For retailers and gift card distributors, the report brings together three operational issues: stocking brands that recipients actually want, helping shoppers complete purchases they planned before entering the store, and placing presentation products close to the cards. The findings describe consumer responses collected in 2024; the publication date does not make them a survey of 2025 behaviour.
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Daniel Brooks
Daniel Brooks covers payment networks, financial technology, payment security, gift card fraud and PCI DSS for Gift Card News.