Redemption Rate
Not all gift cards are redeemed. The card may be lost; there may be time decay (expiration and fees) or complex rules of redemption; the recipient may not be interested in the store that accepts the card or be under the false assumption that not using it will save money for the giver. It has been estimated that perhaps 10% of cards are not redeemed, amounting to a gain for retailers of about $8 billion in the US in 2006.
In 2012, over $100 Billion in gift cards will be purchased in the US, where over 20% of those gift cards will go unredeemed or unused. This has amassed a large opportunity in the secondary market, similar to the secondary ticket market in the early 2000's. Companies such as CouponTrade have created a business in the secondary gift card market that allow consumers to sell their unused gift cards or buy discounted gift cards to their favorite brands. This has helped their users recoup their share of some $55 million per day that goes unredeemed in the US every year, by turning their unused gift cards into cash.
Read more about this topic: Gift Card
Famous quotes containing the words redemption and/or rate:
“Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 21:28.
“If you could choose your parents,... we would rather have a mother who felt a sense of guilt—at any rate who felt responsible, and felt that if things went wrong it was probably her fault—we’d rather have that than a mother who immediately turned to an outside thing to explain everything, and said it was due to the thunderstorm last night or some quite outside phenomenon and didn’t take responsibility for anything.”
—D.W. Winnicott (20th century)