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Data for today’s episode is provided by Mercator Advisory Group’s report – North American PaymentsInsights: Prepaid Cards: Shifting Purchase Channels
7 Interesting 2020 Trends in Prepaid Gift Cards:
- Prepaid gift cards purchased as gifts for others are much more likely to be bought at a gift card display than from any other location.
- Websites that sell a wide range of prepaid cards are experiencing high growth: 37% of consumers bought in 2020 compared to 23% in 2018.
- Banks have emerged as an increasingly popular place to buy prepaid gift cards: 36% of consumers bought in 2020, compared to 19% in 2018.
- Social media websites have exploded in popularity to buy prepaid gift cards: 46% of consumers bought in 2020 compared to 17% in 2018.
- Cash remains the most popular gift to receive: 37% of consumers preferred cash in 2020 compared to 47% in 2020.
- Across the board, fewer consumers see the advantage of prepaid cards over cash.
- There is a slight drop in consumers buying prepaid gift cards for themselves across all categories.
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.