Gift cards appear in the holiday shopping plans of 58.9% of US adults in ThinkNow's new consumer study, up from 48% in the research firm's 2023 comparison.
The September 21 report points to a stronger stated appetite for gift cards ahead of the 2026 holiday season. The change is 10.9 percentage points across those two survey comparisons. It is not an estimate of annual sales growth or proof that consumers have already spent more on cards.
ThinkNow's accompanying analysis, written by Roy Eduardo Kokoyachuk, places gift cards among the most frequently planned purchases. For issuers and distributors, that creates a demand signal to weigh alongside eventual transaction data, the value loaded per card and the channels shoppers actually use.
A national sample with different gift-card intentions
The firm says its online study surveyed 1,500 US adults aged 18 or older. The sample included 500 Hispanic respondents, 250 Black respondents, 250 Asian respondents and 500 non-Hispanic White respondents. Results were weighted to represent the US adult population.
Gift-card purchase intentions varied across the groups for which the published summary provides figures: 64.3% among non-Hispanic White respondents, 48.0% among Hispanic respondents and 44.5% among Black respondents. The accessible summary does not provide an equivalent gift-card figure for Asian respondents.
Gift-card buying plans vary across the published groups
Share planning a gift-card purchase for holiday 2026. The national result is a weighted baseline; the other bars are subgroup results.
%
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
Source
ThinkNow online survey of 1,500 U.S. adults 18+, including 500 Hispanic, 250 Black, 250 Asian and 500 non-Hispanic White respondents; results weighted to represent the U.S. adult population. The public primary summary does not disclose fieldwork dates, recruitment, detailed weights, full questionnaire or margin of error. Baseline and subgroup bars have different denominators and are not additive. The accessible summary omits the Asian subgroup’s gift-card figure; absence is not zero. Intentions do not establish loaded value, cards per buyer, completed sales or a causal group effect. No statistical significance is inferred.
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| Category | Plan to purchase gift cards |
|---|---|
| All U.S. adults: weighted baseline | 58.9% |
| Non-Hispanic White respondents | 64.3% |
| Hispanic respondents | 48.0% |
| Black respondents | 44.5% |
Those differences concern the share of respondents planning a purchase. They do not establish the amounts each group expects to load onto cards, the number of cards per buyer or the eventual revenue contribution of a group.
Strong card interest within a cautious spending picture
The broader holiday results contain signs of restraint. ThinkNow reports that 23% plan to spend more overall, compared with 25% in its 2023 comparison, while 23.3% plan to spend less this year. A rise in gift-card purchase intentions can therefore coexist with pressure on the overall holiday budget.
Plans to spend more and less are nearly balanced
Separate reported responses about total holiday spending relative to the preceding year, from the 2026 survey.
%
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
Source
ThinkNow online survey of 1,500 U.S. adults 18+, including 500 Hispanic, 250 Black, 250 Asian and 500 non-Hispanic White respondents; results weighted to represent the U.S. adult population. The public primary summary does not disclose fieldwork dates, recruitment, detailed weights, full questionnaire or margin of error. These two published categories do not form the full distribution; no remainder is reconstructed. The comparison concerns all holiday spending, not card-specific budgets or actual purchases. The 0.3-point difference is not presented as statistically meaningful.
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| Category | Share of surveyed adults |
|---|---|
| Plan to spend more | 23.0% |
| Plan to spend less | 23.3% |
The report also finds that 58% expect to start shopping before Black Friday, compared with 40% in 2023. That is a general holiday timing result, rather than a separate measure of when gift cards will be bought or redeemed.
More shoppers say they will start before Black Friday
General holiday shopping start plans in ThinkNow’s published 2023 and 2026 comparisons.
%
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
Source
ThinkNow online survey of 1,500 U.S. adults 18+, including 500 Hispanic, 250 Black, 250 Asian and 500 non-Hispanic White respondents; results weighted to represent the U.S. adult population. The public primary summary does not disclose fieldwork dates, recruitment, detailed weights, full questionnaire or margin of error. The current summary does not supply the 2023 sample, detailed weighting, questionnaire or matching fieldwork dates, so methodological comparability cannot be fully audited. These are two published comparison points, not an annual time series. They do not identify when gift cards specifically will be purchased, delivered or redeemed, and do not establish actual 2026 transactions.
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| Category | Start before Black Friday |
|---|---|
| 2023 comparison | 40% |
| 2026 survey | 58% |
The public summary does not disclose fieldwork dates, the complete questionnaire or a margin of error. It also does not identify a card-specific spending forecast. Those limits matter when translating the findings into commercial expectations: the study records plans, while sales, loaded value and redemption behavior still require observation.
The disclosed results nevertheless put gift cards prominently in the intended holiday purchase mix. Their eventual market significance will depend on how much of that stated interest becomes completed orders.
In this article
Maya Bennett
Maya Bennett covers customer loyalty, employee rewards and incentive programmes for Gift Card News.