Starbucks Is Now Selling $200 Swarovski Crystal-Encrusted Gift Cards

In 2015, almost 60 percent of survey participants said that they would rather receive a gift card for holidays. Still, the NRF survey pointed to gift cards as the top requested holiday gift item for the ninth year in a row.

The study notes the increasing consumer love for gift cards requires retailers to provide consumers improved card management options, such as storing the card on mobile devices. “They’ve gone beyond the gift card as a transaction device”.

Demand for the cards reaches pitch fever on Christmas Eve, as procrastinators procure them en masse.

“You don’t have the card hanging on a rack for many days and accessible by fraudsters, who can copy that number and drain that account before you actually use it”, Setzfand says. Shoppers plan to spend an average of $44.83 per card, according to the group’s findings.

The cards also represent a big cash advance for the company and are a predictor of its coming costs.

A new CashStar study reveals 61 percent of online holiday shoppers have gift cards on the shopping list even before December arrives, but 70 percent will be running to a store at the last minute to grab them off the shelf and cross them off the shopping list. A local Whole Foods manager, Dave Berger, explains that the holidays are a time where scammers become more prevalent and says: “Make sure you’re buying things like gift cards from a reputable source”. Starbucks is one of First Data’s clients.

The limited-edition Starbucks Card is covered in deep blue crystals and is part of the 2015 Premium Card Collection.

The company is confident that it will be able to beat last year’s numbers by a considerable amount. The company noted that it sold close to 2.5 million gift cards on Christmas Eve 2014 and that it expects to break that record this year. The S&P is about flat for the same period.