United States Gift Card Business And Investment Report 2026: A 320+ Billion Market By 2030 Featuring Walmart, Amazon, Costco, Home Depot, Target, Apple, CVS, Sycamore Partners, Kroger, Publix

(MENAFN- GlobeNewsWire - Nasdaq) The US gift card market offers opportunities in four main areas: repositioning gift cards as ecosystem instruments to enhance brand loyalty, embedding them in apps for seamless transactions, using them as controlled corporate spending tools, and bolstering fraud controls. Focus on digital transformation and integration into payment ecosystems is key.

Dublin, Feb. 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "United States Gift Card Business and Investment Opportunities Databook - 90+ KPIs on Gift Card Market Size, Retail & Corporate Spend, Competitive Landscape, and Consumer Demographics - Q1 2026 Update" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets's offering.
The Gift Card market in the United States is expected to grow by 7.1% on annual basis to reach US$246.91 billion in 2026. The gift card market in the country has experienced robust growth during 2021-2025, achieving a CAGR of 7.5%. This upward trajectory is expected to continue, with the market forecast to grow at a CAGR of 6.8% from 2026-2030. By the end of 2030, the Gift Card sector is projected to expand from its 2025 value of USD 230.48 billion to approximately USD 320.81 billion.

Over the next 2-4 years, competition will increasingly favour ecosystem owners and distribution controllers. Retailers without direct app or wallet relationships will rely more heavily on aggregators. Fraud controls and compliance capabilities will become a competitive differentiator, raising barriers to entry for smaller competitors. Expect continued blurring between gift cards, prepaid balances, and incentive payouts, with fewer standalone gift-card specialists and deeper integration into payments and platform infrastructure.

This report provides a detailed data-centric analysis of the Gift Card industry in United States, covering growth opportunities and potential constraints across multiple retail sectors. With more than 90+ KPIs, this report delivers a comprehensive view of gift card market dynamics, including market size and outlook, spend patterns, digital adoption, and competitive market share insights.
It breaks down market opportunities across gift card formats and usage dimensions, including functional attributes (open loop and closed loop), retail and corporate segments, distribution channels (online and offline), and delivery models. In addition, it provides clear insights into consumer and corporate purchasing behaviour, gifting occasions, and retail sector spending patterns. KPIs measured in both value and volume terms enable a deep understanding of gift card adoption, usage intensity, and end-market dynamics.

Key Attributes:

Report Attribute	Details
No. of Pages	320
Forecast Period	2026 - 2030
Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2026	$246.91 Trillion
Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2030	$320.81 Trillion
Compound Annual Growth Rate	6.8%
Regions Covered	United States

Companies Featured

• Walmart
• Amazon
• Costco
• Home Depot
• Target
• Apple Store
• CVS Pharmacy
• Sycamore Partners (retail ownership proxy)
• Kroger
• Publix

Current State of the Market

• The US gift card market is highly competitive and structurally mature, with intensity concentrated around distribution control rather than issuance. Most large retailers already issue proprietary gift cards; differentiation now comes from where and how those cards are sold, stored, and redeemed.
• Digital delivery dominates incremental growth, while physical cards remain relevant mainly in mass retail and grocery. Platforms that control checkout, wallets, or employee payout flows exert increasing influence over volume and visibility.
• Competitive pressure is strongest between platform-led ecosystems and specialist gift-card infrastructure providers, rather than between individual retailers.

Key Players and New Entrants

• Platform issuers: Amazon, Apple, Walmart, and Starbucks treat gift cards as stored-value extensions of their ecosystems, reducing reliance on third-party aggregators.
• Open-loop networks: Visa and Mastercard underpin prepaid and branded gift cards, maintaining relevance in incentives and general-purpose use cases.
• Infrastructure and distribution specialists: Blackhawk Network and InComm Payments remain central by powering third-party gift cards across grocery, convenience, digital marketplaces, and B2B programs.
• New entrants focus less on consumer gifting and more on programmatic payouts, refunds, and incentives, often embedded into HR, fintech, or creator-economy platforms.

Shift gift cards from retail SKUs to ecosystem value instruments

• Gift cards in the US are increasingly positioned as unified value instruments inside brand ecosystems rather than as single-purpose retail products. The Apple Gift Card consolidates spend across apps, subscriptions, devices, and services into a single balance, replacing multiple product-specific cards. Amazon continues to frame its gift cards as stored value usable across retail, digital content, and marketplace services, reinforcing account-level attachment rather than one-off gifting.
• Large US platforms are prioritising account stickiness and balance retention as tools for customer lifecycle management. Retail and digital services increasingly operate as ecosystems, making a single stored-value instrument operationally simpler than fragmented cards.
• This approach will intensify among large platforms and subscription-led retailers. Expect fewer niche cards and more consolidated balances tied to logged-in identities, with gift cards behaving closer to prepaid accounts.

Embed gift cards directly into wallets, apps, and checkout flows

• Gift cards are moving into everyday payment journeys rather than being purchased from separate gift-card pages. Starbucks continues to treat digital gift cards as a core app function stored, reloaded, and redeemed alongside loyalty and payments. Major retailers like Target emphasise digital delivery and app storage, reducing reliance on physical cards.
• US consumers are accustomed to app-led retail and wallet storage. Retailers want to reduce lost cards, customer-service friction, and fraud associated with email codes, while increasing repeat reload behaviour.
• Wallet-native gift cards will become standard for large retailers and foodservice. Physical cards will remain, but mainly as acquisition tools in stores rather than the primary experience.

Reframe gift cards as controlled-value tools for corporate spend

• In the US, gift cards are increasingly used by employers and platforms as controlled-value instruments for incentives, refunds, and customer appeasement rather than discretionary rewards. Digital gift cards offer precise brand control and faster distribution than checks or cash equivalents.
• Enterprises are under pressure to control spending, audit payouts, and avoid cash leakage. Digital gift cards provide traceability and brand alignment, aligning with broader shifts toward digital disbursements and programmatic payouts.
• Corporate demand will continue to favour digital, reloadable, and programmatically issued gift cards. This will push issuers to improve bulk issuance, controls, and reporting rather than consumer-facing design.

Tighten fraud controls as gift cards remain a scam payment vector

• Gift cards remain a target in US payment scams, prompting retailers, platforms, and payment providers to add warnings, staff prompts, and purchase-pattern controls. Public guidance from platforms and payment firms has become more explicit about illegitimate uses of gift cards.
• US regulators, consumer-protection bodies, and financial institutions continue to highlight gift-card scams, keeping reputational and operational risk high for retailers. Fraud losses increasingly translate into customer-service costs and brand damage.
• Expect more friction at checkout for high-risk denominations and brands, stronger identity checks for digital delivery, and closer coordination with payment providers such as PayPal and network operators like Visa. Fraud management will become a core operating requirement rather than an edge case.

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• U.S. Gift Card Market

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