Take Pics and Listen to Music with Latest Gift Cards from Target and Best Buy

For this year’s Christmas gift-giving season, consumers will be presently surprised with the latest offerings.

With everyone tightening their belts during this year's holiday season, retailers are vying to come up with affordable but tech-savvy products to entice shoppers. And, it seems consumers will be happy with this year’s new products.

 

Ever heard of a gift card that doubles as a digital camera? Found at Target, this 1.2 megapixel camera has 8 megabytes of on-board memory and comes with a USB cord, driver disk and a coupon for 40 free prints. There is no fee for the card, but shoppers must load at least $50 on it.

Although some people tend to believe that giving someone a gift card is an easy way to get out of finding something more meaningful, gift cards that can double as gifts themselves are a great option, especially if your tight on time and low on money.

 

Target isn’t alone in its endeavor to break the gift-giving mold. Best Buy will offer a gift card that works as a small speaker to play music from MP3 players, iPods, or any audio player with a mini headphone jack.

 

Last year, Target and Best Buy both offered gift cards that featured blinking lights, music and programmable LED screens. And, compared to this year’s technologically advanced cards, it is funny to remember how LED screens were considered innovative just one year ago.

 

According to Jonathan Hart, a sales associate at Best Buy, these types of cards are a way of showing people the possibilities that can come with the gift card.

 

"It gets them excited about getting a gift card and allows them to envision the possibilities," Hart said.

 

Gift cards play an important role for Best Buy during the holiday season. The company sells about 70 percent of its gift cards during the holiday season, with the bulk of those sales coming in the two weeks before Christmas, Best Buy said.

 

"Electronics are a fairly complex purchase," Hart said. "Some people are not comfortable making that purchase for someone else."

 

When 228 consumers were asked by CNBC if they were more likely to purchase a gift card from a retailer that offers a novelty gift card, more than half (52 percent) said “no”, 41 percent said “yes”, and 6.6 percent were unsure.

 

Other gift-card vendors are looking to personalization in order to stir up consumer interest. For example, at Macy's, shoppers can customize a gift card with their own photos, while Visa and American Express allow gift givers to personalize cards for the recipient.

 

For cost-conscious shoppers looking to give a gift card this Christmas, Costco is selling a bundle of five $20 Starbucks gift cards for $79.99, which is a 20 percent discount.

 

Since most gift-card sales won't occur until next month, it's hard to predict how gift card sales will be impacted by the current economic slowdown.

 

Last Christmas, consumers spent $26.2 billion on gift cards, with an average of $40 spent per card, according the National Retail Federation, an industry trade group.

 

They might seem like a way to avoid giving a more thoughtful gift, but gift cards are actually at the top of most people's wish lists, according to the a survey conducted by BIGresearch for the NRF. Conducted in early October, the survey revealed that close to 55 percent of consumers would like to get a gift card this holiday season.

 

What will retailers come out with next in an effort to beat the decrease in consumer spending? How will this year’s holiday spending figures compare to last year’s? And, will retailers be able to survive? The next few weeks will be a trying and revealing time for everyone.