I was curious as to which gift cards are most commonly gifted during the holidays. A google search turned up some articles discussing the most popular gift card people want, of course that skews toward valuable gift cards like Amazon, Visa, and Walmart. But I was interested in finding out which gift cards people actually give the most often.
A good place to search is always to check the best sellers on Amazon. Here is the list of best selling gift cards sold on Amazon (affiliate links in this post).Â
A big limitation here is that this list shows gift card brands available on Amazon. That discounts popular options like Walmart and Target gift cards. Still, Amazon does sell a huge selection of gift cards, including Visa gift cards, grocery store gift cards, restaurant gift cards, travel gift cards, department store gift cards, even Best Buy gift cards, so there is some interesting data there.
Here is the abridged list of the top 100 sellers:
- 1-10) Amazon
- 11) $25 Visa
- 12) Amazon
- 13) $50 Visa
- 14-19) Amazon
- 20) $25 Ulta
- 21) Amazon
- 22) $25 Sephora
- 23) $25 Visa
- 24-25) Amazon
- 26) $25 Starbucks
- 27-30) Amazon
- 31) $25 iTunes
- 32) Amazon
- 33) $50 Ulta
- 34-35) Amazon
- 36) $200 Visa
- 37) Amazon
- 38) $50 Sephora
- 39) $40 Starbucks
- 40-41) Amazon
- 42)Â Starbucks
- 43)Â $50 Lowe’s
- 44-45) Amazon
- 46) $25 AMC
- 47) $25 iTunes
- 48) Amazon
- 49) $25 Darden
- 50) $50 Gamestop
- 51-53) Amazon
- 54) $25 Texas Roadhouse
- 55) $50 American Eagle
- 56-66) Amazon
- 67) $50 Texas Roadhouse
- 68) $25 Regal
- 69-71) Amazon
- 72) $50 Kohl’s
- 73-74) Amazon
- 75) $25 Fandango
- 76-80) Amazon
- 81) $40 iTunes
- 82) $50 iTunes
- 83) Amazon
- 84) $50 Whole Foods
- 85) Amazon
- 86) $50 Gap
- 87) $50 Outback
- 88) Amazon
- 89) $25 Taco Bell
- 90) Amazon
- 91) $50 Cabela’s
- 92) $50 Darden
- 93) $25 Cabela’s
- 94-97) Amazon
- 98) $25 Olive Garden
- 99-100) Amazon
Amazon gift cards are, without a doubt, an extremely popular brand to gift, but let’s discount those due to Amazon being the retailer here. It seems Ulta and Sephora are the most common, with Starbucks and iTunes coming up next, and then some restaurant gift cards in third place. Those seem to be the most commonly gifted cards, mostly in $25 or $50 denominations.
So in the end, my little research indicates that it boils down to a bunch of folks giving their wives/GF’s/daughters/relatives Ulta or Sephora gift cards, and friends/coworkers/bosses/parents giving Starbucks or iTunes gift cards.
Amazon’s Best Seller list updates hourly, and I’m sure it looks different other times of the year, but this is likely a good estimation of what gift card giving looks like during the holiday season. Let us know what you’ve experienced or if you’ve seen other popular options from gift cards not sold on Amazon.
