2015 Closed-Loop Gift Card Holiday Forecast: Growth Returns

Despite mixed signals from the market, Mercator's holiday forecast of loads in the In-Store Gift Card segment of closed-loop prepaid cards predicts that the business will continue to grow. Digital channels, consumer preferences, and discounting will all help to spur growth in holiday gift card loads.

Using information gathered as part of Mercator Advisory Group’s annual closed-loop prepaid cards benchmark survey, Mercator has created a forecast of the dollar amount that will be loaded onto gift cards that are sold in stores in the United States during the 2014 holiday shopping season. This forecast focuses solely on closed-loop cards sold by issuers in the United States to customers for use in their own stores.

"Closed-loop issuers will see new growth in their card portfolios thanks to the convergence of several factors. New ways of shopping and new attitudes towards gifts will bolster the gift card market," Ben Jackson, director of Mercator Advisory Group's Prepaid Advisory Service, and author of the report, comments.

This document is 7 pages long and has 4 exhibits.