Physical gift cards remain the preferred choice for many consumers, but digital gift cards and mobile wallet delivery are becoming increasingly important purchase channels. Consumer preferences also vary considerably depending on the type of prepaid card, with general purpose gift cards and retailer gift cards showing stronger preferences for physical formats while other prepaid categories have a more balanced distribution.
Research from Mercator Advisory Group’s North American PaymentsInsights Survey Series highlights how prepaid card purchase channels are evolving as consumers gain more ways to buy, receive, and use cards. These shifts provide important insights into the changing prepaid market and the growing role of digital distribution.
Don’t miss another episode of Truth In Data! Click on the red bell in the lower-left corner of your screen to receive notifications as soon as the episode publishes.
Data for today’s episode is provided by Mercator Advisory Group’s report – North American PaymentsInsights: Prepaid Cards: Shifting Purchase Channels
Are Consumers Buying Physical or Digital Gift Cards?
- Consumers are buying general purpose gift cards physically (33%) more than 2:1 to digital (13%).
- However general purpose reloadable gift cards are bought more equally physical (18%) to digital (13%).
- Retailer gift cards: the most popular prepaid card (48% of consumers) are more popularly delivered physically (30%) than digitally or virtually (17%) or delivered to wallet (8%).
- 15% of Gaming or Music gift cards are delivered physically, 12% digital or virtual, and 7% direct to the wallet.
- Prepaid Phone cards and Transit cards are tied for least popular, with only 25% of consumers purchasing this year.
- Prepaid phone and transit cards have equal distribution physically (12/11%), digitally or virtually (10%), and delivered to virtual wallets (6%).
About Report
Mercator Advisory Group’s most recent Insight Summary Report, Prepaid Cards: Shifting Purchase Channels, from the bi-annual North American PaymentsInsights Survey Series reveals continued growth of reloadable cards in the United States. Furthermore, the purchase channels for many types of prepaid cards (closed-loop gift, open-loop gift, open-loop reloadable, gaming, phone and transit) are also shifting, particularly in the area of online purchasing.
Prepaid Cards: Shifting Purchase Channels, the latest Insight Summary Report from Mercator Advisory Group’s Primary Data Service, is based on a sample of 3,001 U.S. adults surveyed in the annual online Payments survey of Mercator’s North American PaymentsInsights Survey Series, conducted in June 2020.
The study highlights consumers’ use and interest in prepaid cards and, in particular, store cards, general purpose (or open-loop) cards and general purpose reloadable cards. The report explores where consumers buy and redeem prepaid cards, whether the cards are purchased for themselves or as gifts, how the cards are used, sources of funds for the cards, and other key aspects of prepaid cards in consumers’ lives.
“The prepaid market is changing with neo and challenger banks, use of reloadable prepaid cards, and more governments and corporations issuing prepaid cards instead of checks for disbursements of all types. That said, the use of gift cards continues to be strong, particularly online,” stated the author of the report, Peter Reville, director of Primary Data Services at Mercator Advisory Group, which includes the North American PaymentsInsights Survey Series.
