Gift cards are the most requested of the gift categories disclosed in the National Retail Federation’s new U.S. holiday survey, with 47% of holiday shoppers saying they would like to receive one. Clothing follows at 44%. The result gives card sellers an indication of recipient interest ahead of the 2026 season, while leaving the amount shoppers will actually buy unresolved. [S1][S2]
Released on October 20, the study was conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics among 8,094 adult consumers from October 1 to 7. Its wish-list question concerns receiving gifts, a different measure from a purchaser’s intended card budget. [S1]
A wish list for recipients, with limits for sellers
Gifts U.S. holiday shoppers would like to receive
Four gift categories disclosed in NRF and Prosper Insights & Analytics’s October 2026 survey.
% of holiday shoppers
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
Sources
United States, 2026 winter holiday season. Survey of 8,094 adult consumers conducted October 1-7, 2026 by Prosper Insights & Analytics for NRF. The official data summary identifies the wish-list base as holiday shoppers; the item-level respondent count is not published. NRF reports a survey-wide margin of error of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points, without item-specific intervals. Categories overlap and must not be added. These are recipient preferences, not planned purchases, completed sales, spending shares or a forecast of gift-card revenue. Full questionnaire, recruitment, sampling frame and weighting details are not supplied in the release.
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| Category | Would like to receive |
|---|---|
| Gift cards | 47 % of holiday shoppers |
| Clothing | 44 % of holiday shoppers |
| Books and other media | 25 % of holiday shoppers |
| Personal care or beauty items | 24 % of holiday shoppers |
NRF also reports books and other media at 25% and personal care or beauty items at 24%. The four published percentages describe overlapping preferences. They cannot be divided into shares of holiday sales, and the three-point gap between gift cards and clothing is not evidence of a corresponding advantage in transaction value. [S1][S2]
For issuers and distributors, a recipient preference can support the case for keeping gift cards visible in a seasonal assortment. It does not determine which brand, denomination or delivery format will sell. The release provides no gift-card spending total, physical-versus-digital split or redemption result from which to make those choices.
The broader shopping context is cautious: 56% of holiday shoppers said the economy would affect their spending plans. That finding helps explain why recipient interest and the eventual purchase amount need to be considered separately. The survey does not establish that economic concerns caused respondents to choose gift cards. [S1]
NRF is a retail trade association and the commissioner of the research; Prosper is the survey producer. Their published findings are stated consumer responses, rather than an independent count of checkout transactions. NRF gives a survey-wide margin of error of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points, but does not publish the gift-question base, its own uncertainty interval, the full questionnaire, recruitment method or weighting details in the release. [S1]
The question also differs from InComm’s recently published holiday purchase survey. That study asks about giving and buying cards; NRF’s disclosed ranking concerns what recipients want. The two sources therefore describe separate sides of seasonal gifting and cannot be combined into a single demand estimate.
In this article
Emma Carter
Emma Carter covers retail, e-commerce and the gift card shopping experience for Gift Card News.