InComm Payments highlighted gift cards for Mother's Day, Father's Day and graduation in a May 2024 seasonal infographic. It combines National Retail Federation data for 2023 with InComm category information identified as a 2024 report. The underlying NRF research measures spending plans, rather than a final audit of purchases.

InComm describes growth of 4% for Mother's Day gift-card spending, 4.5% for Father's Day purchases and more than 6% for graduation spending. Those labels do not identify a consistent calculation across the three occasions. NRF separately reports intended purchase incidence, per-person budgets and projected total spending; these are different measures. The chart uses the original NRF gift-card budget projections directly, without treating InComm's percentages as a verified common sales-growth series.

NRF and Prosper Insights & Analytics surveyed 8,164 US adults on April 3-11, 2023 for Mother's Day, and 8,414 consumers on May 1-8 for Father's Day. NRF reports a 1.1-percentage-point margin of error for each survey, but does not provide an uncertainty interval for these aggregate dollar projections. The two holiday estimates come from separate waves, not one panel or a measured sales ledger.

The data behind the story

NRF projected US gift-card budgets for two 2023 occasions

Separate 2023 pre-holiday surveys; projected spending, not realized sales.

USD billions
Sources
NRF Mother’s Day historical data; NRF Father’s Day historical data

Two separate holiday survey projections, rounded to USD0.1 billion. Not final sales, a year-over-year growth comparison or the whole holiday gift budget. No aggregate dollar confidence intervals are provided.

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NRF projected US gift-card budgets for two 2023 occasions (USD billions)
CategoryProjected gift-card spending
Mother’s Day 20233.4 USD billions
Father’s Day 20232.8 USD billions

For Mother's Day, InComm lists open-loop cards, department stores and family restaurants among the leading gift card categories. For Father's Day, the highlighted categories are open-loop cards, DIY and sports or outdoor spending.

In NRF's 2023 graduation table, 33% planned to give gift cards, behind cash at 52% and greeting cards at 38%. Gift cards rank second only if greeting cards are excluded. The three occasions create different merchandising needs even though all fall within the spring and early-summer gifting period. The historical graduation table does not supply the exact 2023 survey sample and fieldwork dates in the material reviewed.

InComm presents the findings as an opportunity for retailers to plan both physical-store and online gift-card sales. The NRF figures describe intentions and projected budgets for 2023; InComm's category information and publication are dated 2024. Neither establishes the eventual realized gift-card sales total.