Baton rouge restaurant gift certificate

New Orleans retailers buy into trend for holiday gift card presents

U.S. retailers sold an estimated $20 billion in gift cards this holiday season, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.

National retailers have offered gift cards for nearly a decade, but many New Orleans-area retailers offered the cards for the first time this year.

We were a little bit slower than the rest of the country in adopting the gift card program, but in the last two years we've seen phenomenal growth, especially in New Orleans, in gift card acceptance, said Jim Rutledge, public relations director for the Louisiana Retail Association.

More than 700 Louisiana retailers offered gift cards this holiday season, up 10 percent over last year and more than 50 percent since 2001, Rutledge said.

Leading into the holiday season, we did an independent survey with our membership that found more and more retailers are offering gift card programs, said Rutledge.

Dollar estimates for gift cards sold in Louisiana were not available.

Gift cards are estimated to have made up 11 percent of the $220 billion total holiday season sales nationwide, a 3 percent jump from the previous year, according to ICSC estimates.

The Esplanade Mall, for example, began issuing gift cards in August after customers began asking for them, said Anne Mialaret, marketing director.

As people became more accustomed to retailer gift cards, they wanted the same portability and convenience to use throughout the mall, she said. Our final holiday numbers aren't in yet but we had a tremendous response to the cards this year.

Traditional retailers weren't the only stores reaping the benefits of gift card sales.

Paris Parker Salons offered shoppers a free $20 gift card with the purchase of a $100 gift card between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.

Their popularity is growing. Most retailers from grocery stores and restaurants to apparel and electronics retailers are carrying them now, said Malachy Kavanagh, ICSC spokesman.

Raising Cane's, a Baton Rouge-based chicken finger restaurant, sold more than 6,000 gift cards between Dec. 17-24, said Juan Simoneaux, marketing services manager. Four Raising Cane's locations opened in the New Orleans area in the past two years.

It gives us and the restaurant business more of a retail sense by offering a tangible gift. They will also provide a lift in the coming weeks and months when they are redeemed in what is typically a slow time in the restaurant business, Simoneaux said.

Cane's packaged its gift cards with a stuffed toy yellow Labrador in sunglasses. The packaging trend has helped several retailers make their cards more attractive, said Scott Krugman, a National Retail Federation spokesman. The marketing going into the gift card now calls for clever design and packaging. It's become a product in itself more than its ancestor the gift certificate, Krugman said.

Kavanagh said most retailers, with the exception of dollar stores and mom-and-pop stores, offer gift cards as credit card computer infrastructure becomes a staple within the retail industry.

Porter Stevens Men's Wear began issuing gift cards this year when the service was made available by its credit card-processing company, said company buyer William Crockett. We did a tremendous amount of business with gift cards this season, he said. We sold well over 100 cards, a 4 percent increase over 2003 gift certificate sales, he said. He did not have a total dollar amount for gift card sales.

This year Whitney National Bank offered gift cards through a global credit card company.

We began offering gift cards and travel cards through American Express on Dec. 1, just in time for the holiday season, said Greg Johnson, a Whitney spokesman.

The Whitney gift cards work like a debit card and, unlike retailer- issued gift cards, are accepted everywhere American Express cards are allowed, he said.

Whitney did not have a total number of gift cards sold this year. Johnson said the bank averaged selling 60 cards a day in the first half of December and about 200 a day the week before Christmas.

It's a very convenient gift for consumers who are lacking time or knowledge of what to buy for someone, Kavanagh said. You don't want to buy the wrong thing.