A Starbucks gift card is one of the most iconic last-minute Christmas gifts.
This year will likely be no exception, as the company anticipates more than 1 in 6 Americans will receive a gift card this holiday season, following a record-breaking year in 2021, when the company sold 55 million.
The company said it is projected to sell 58 million cards this year.
In the over 20 years that the cards have been around, there have been over 1,100 gift card designs.
“The Starbucks card is the most fun thing to work on,” said Meghan O’Brien, senior designer in the Starbucks Creative Studio. “It’s such an expressive part of our brand, and one with so much emotion baked into it. The card designs are something that makes your heart warm.”
Gift cards, in general, are some of the most popular gifts. The National Retail Federation expects holiday shoppers to load more than $28.6 billion onto gift cards this holiday season.
Starbucks initially launched its iconic gift cards in 2001. Back then, they came with a tiny owner’s manual with instructions and a toll-free number.
In the second quarter of 2022, Starbucks Interim CEO Howard Schultz said over $1 billion is parked in unused Starbucks gift cards, according to Insider.
Alex Lieberman, the cofounder of Morning Brew, said Starbucks essentially borrows from customers at -10% “interest” to fund operations since roughly 10% of gift card holders do not use up their balances. In turn, that extra money is used to fund operations.
“Starbucks borrows $1.6 billion from customers at 0% interest and gets to keep 100% of the $160 million they forget to spend,” Lieberman stated.
According to Bloomberg, Starbucks claimed $181 million in revenue from money that was not spent on gift cards and loyalty accounts in fiscal 2021, up from $145 million the previous year.
The $181 million represented less than 1% of sales in 2021 but 4.3% of net income before taxes.
Starbucks said the busiest day for gift card purchasers is usually December 23.
