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Restaurant gift card sales strong despite shorter holiday season

January 13, 2020

Although restaurants felt the affect of the shortened 2019 holiday sales season in gift card sales, those sales are still on an upswing, according to data from Paytronix Systems Inc. 

The 2019 Christmas Shopping season had fewer days than 2017 or 2018, but over the long-term gift cards sales experienced a significant rise during the 2018 selling season, according to a press release.

Overall, the nearly 200 restaurants measured by Paytronix showed declines in both the number of gift cards sold and in the dollar values of those cards. For the period between Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, 2019, Paytronix data revealed a 1.3% decline in cards sold, but only a .62% decline in dollar values sold when compared with the previous year. However, for the holiday season alone, from Black Friday to Christmas Eve, card sales were down 5.6% while dollar values were off by 5.8%.

However, while card sales are down from their 2018 peak, that year saw a 15% increase in card sales versus the 2017 holiday season. What's more, 2019 sales still outpaced those in 2016, which is significant given that those two selling seasons were closer in length, Michelle Tempesta, head of marketing for Paytronix Systems, said in the release.

"The lesson here is that every day of the holiday season counts. Gift cards sell more during the holidays than any other time of year. In fact, you can almost see the panic in the buyers faces on the graph, which shows a last-minute spike this year that exceeds the previous three years, she said. "These cards kick off a cycle for the coming year that means great business. The majority of cards are likely to be used in the first two months of 2020, then it’s about capturing those guests and keeping them loyal."

Other external factors can also affect gift card sales. During the first weekend of holiday sales, directly following Black Friday, a weather system that blanketed most of the country in snow and rain depressed sales on Saturday, even as Friday and Sunday showed sales increase. This resulted in a 10% drop in Black Friday gift card sales as compared with 2018, according to the release.