Two-Thirds of Shoppers Used Card-Linked Offers to Make Holiday Purchases

The 2023 holiday shopping season provided little reprieve from rising prices, and United States consumers sought ways to manage spending. This made card-linked offers especially attractive to budget-conscious shoppers. In fact, discounts and rewards were key drivers of consumer interest in and use of these offers.

More than half of cardholders were interested in switching to merchants providing product-specific card-linked offers, suggesting that merchants can use tailored and relevant offers as a tool to engage today’s shoppers.

These are key findings explored in “Leveraging Item-Level Receipt Data: How Merchants Engaged Holiday Shoppers With Card-Linked Offers,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and Banyan collaboration. We surveyed 2,031 U.S. consumers from Oct. 25, 2023, to Oct. 30, 2023, to learn about their use of card-linked offers during the 2023 holiday season, their preferences for personalized offers and their interest in switching to merchants that provide them.

Other findings from the report include:

Many consumers planning to make holiday purchases were interested in card-linked offers.

Top spenders were the most interested in using these offers: 65% of consumers with children said they were at least somewhat likely to use them during the holiday season. Forty percent said they were highly likely to use these offers for their holiday purchases.

Among millennials, 39% said they were highly likely to use card-linked offers. This suggests that these consumers tend to have higher household expenses and may be more budget-conscious when shopping for the holidays.

Availability of discounts and ease of applying offers drove usage.

More than half of cardholders who have used card-linked offers cite good cash-back rewards and automatically applied discounts as the primary drivers of their merchant selection. Among cardholders who have not used these offers, 48% have considered using them to receive cash-back rewards. Also, 34% have considered using them to access discounts. Learning how these offers appeal to consumers can help merchants and card issuers tailor their offerings to drive consumer spending.

Cardholders will switch merchants to receive specific card-linked offers for their holiday shopping.

Many consumers look for bargains when shopping for the holidays, allowing merchants to engage card users with product-specific card-linked discounts and rewards. More than half of surveyed cardholders report interest in switching to merchants that provide such offers. Twenty-seven percent said they were very or extremely likely to switch, and 31% said they were somewhat likely to switch. Also, 41% of shoppers new to merchants were highly interested in switching, as were nearly one-third loyal to their current merchants.

When appealing and relevant, card-linked offers can engage existing customers, attract new ones and even bring back previously loyal customers. Download the report to learn how merchants offering tailored and relevant card-linked offers had a competitive advantage this holiday shopping season.