Holiday gift-card activation up

Atlanta A report issued Friday by First Data Corp. found that holiday gift-card activation dollars grew 2.1% compared with last year. Number of gift cards sold rose 0.2%.

The e-commerce and payment-processing company said the most significant increase in incentive card use occurred among specialty retailers, who saw a 46.9% increase in gift-card dollars activated on Black Friday compared with last year.

Specialty retail redemptions rose 14.7% the week after Thanksgiving, according to the report. Redemptions rose 3.4% across all merchant types for the week.

First Data said strong sales in the final days before Christmas had a significant impact on holiday gift-card performance. Overall activations in dollars increased 11.8% from the Monday before Christmas to the Sunday after Christmas.  

The First Data Holiday Gift Card Performance Report compared 2009 gift-card sales with the same period in 2008. Numbers are based on aggregate transaction data generated by First Data’s gift-card processing business.