"Consumer confidence is high this holiday season, according to NRF Director of Industry and Consumer Insights Katherine Cullen, and consumers say they'll be spending about $1,000 on average on gifts and other items for the holidays."

"Gifts consumers were planning to give in 2018:

• Clothing/​accessories: 59%
• Gift cards: 56%
• Toys: 41%
• Books/​other media: 40%
• Food/​candy: 32%"

"In 2018, $29.9 billion was expected to be spent on gift cards, with four being the number of gift cards consumers planned to purchase on average. The average value consumers put on each gift card was $49."

"Gift card purchasing plans in 2018:

• Restaurant: 36%
• Department store: 32%
• Visa/​AmEx etc.: 23%
• Coffee Shop: 22%
• Entertainment: 17%
• Online Merchant: 13%
• Electronics Store: 13%
• Book store: 12%
• Grocery store: 11%
• Gas station: 9%
• Discount store: 8%
• Home improvement store: 8%
• Salon: 6%
• Specialty clothing store: 6%
• Home decor: 5%
• Sporting goods: 5%"

Retailers can promote their wide range of available gift cards to Chain Store Shoppers this holiday season through both traditional and digital ads. Within the last month, according to AudienceSCAN, nearly half used a search engine to research a product they were considering and 14.9% say that their favorite type of email to get from businesses is newsletters. Last year, these shoppers took action after seeing TV commercials, receiving direct mail ads, receiving email ads and seeing ads in both print and digital newspapers and magazines.

AudienceSCAN data is available for your applications and dashboards through the SalesFuel API. In addition, AdMall contains industry profiles on department stores and quick-​serve, fast-​casual and full-​service restaurants, as well as lead lists at the local level. Media companies, sales reps and agencies can access this data with a subscription to AdMall from SalesFuel.