Gift Card Sales Soar on Cyber Monday

Restaurant gift card sales soared on Cyber Monday.  

Paytronix examined restaurant gift card sales during the first weekend of the 2022 holiday shopping season.  However Black Friday continues to be the time that consumers look to put larger values on their gift cards, with fine-dining cards having the best showing, according to Paytronix.  

Loaded With More Money, Fewer Cards

For the full holiday weekend, overall gift card sales were mixed, with the number of cards sold down nearly 6.8% from 2021, even as the average dollar amount loaded per card rose 8.4%. Overall dollar sales increased 1.1% year over year from 2021 to 2022.  

Cyber Monday, however, has assumed the mantle as the day of choice to purchase gift cards, with overall card sales up nearly 13.8% and a whopping 17.9% rise in overall dollar sales from 2021. eGift drove much of this gain, with a 31% increase over 2021 for an overall dollar sales increase of nearly 50%.

“As far as the restaurant industry is concerned, Cyber Monday is the true start of the holiday shopping season,” said Paytronix Chief Data Officer Lee Barnes. “The pandemic truly completed the industry’s shift from physical to digital gift cards. What we’re seeing now is the industry embracing that change by running deals and promotions aimed at Cyber Monday.” 

That doesn’t mean Black Friday is entirely done, as the average amount loaded per card that day increased 18.6% year over year. What’s more, the fine-dining segment showed a modest increase, suggesting that consumers look to make higher value purchases early.  

Other findings include:  

• Digital drives the market — with Cyber Monday, more physical cards sold on that day compared with 2021, suggesting that digital deals are also driving physical card sales.  
• The number of eGift cards sold during the first holiday sales weekend of 2022 doubled since 2019, demonstrating that the major shift happened during the pandemic.  
• Fine-dining and family restaurants showed the biggest sales increases, while quick service (QSR) and fast-casual brands showed declines.  

This early look at holiday gift card sales supplements the Paytronix Annual Gift Card Sales Report: 2022, which surveys over 200 brands about their annual gift card sales over the course of the year.  

Methodology 

Following trends in closed-loop restaurant gift card sales, the Paytronix Black Friday Gift Card Sales Research includes data from gift card sales from November 25, 2022 through November 28, 2022, including both full-service and quick-service restaurants. The 2019 to 2022 data looks at 281 brands, while the 2021 to 2022 data looks at 367 brands.