SAN JOSE, CA–(Marketwire – August 24, 2010) –  Plastic Jungle, the Web’s leading gift card exchange, today announced the results of a recent independent study examining the impact of gift card exchanges on retail brands. The results show that consumers have a more positive impression of retail brands when they are given the flexibility to either sell a brand’s gift card for cash or use it at another online retail store.

The survey, which queried consumers across the nation and was conducted by a third-party, found that using a brand-name gift card to buy another brand’s products positively impacts both brands. In a sample of over 600 frequent shoppers of 8 top brands, more than half of respondents said that on average, their opinion of each brand would improve a little or a lot. Most of the remaining respondents said that their already favorable opinion of each brand would not change.

One respondent commented: “A gift card is much more valuable when I can trade it from one store to another.”

The survey also gauged how shoppers felt about finding a brand’s gift cards for sale online at a 20 percent discount. More than 60 percent responded that this would improve their opinion of the brand a little or a lot, and nearly all of the remaining respondents said this would not change their opinion.

“We are pleased that not only did consumers respond favorably to the concept of our new payment products in the national survey, but that the process enhances the brand image of our merchant partners,” said Kristin Donelson, Director of Marketing at Plastic Jungle. “The research indicates that there is a huge opportunity for retailers to further strengthen the perception of their brand by enabling their gift cards to be quickly and safely shifted away from consumers who do not plan to use them and into the hands of highly motivated consumers who have expressed purchase intent.” With this capability, consumers can use the gift cards they aren’t planning to spend and buy something they want.

Supporting its mission to bring liquidity to the estimated $30 billion unredeemed gift card economy for the benefit of consumers, retailers, and other ecommerce companies, Plastic Jungle recently announced PJ Payments and PJ TopUp. These payment products create the ability for consumers to use gift cards to fund their purchases of goods and services on other websites. For instance, Facebook’s 500 million active users can now exchange gift cards for Facebook Credits via Plastic Jungle.

Yesterday, results from a consumer study done in Nov ’09 by Javelin Strategy & Research were published at Internet Retailer.

Quick highlights:

• Javelin predicts online gift card sales will grow at a 29% CAGR over the next several years and will reach $5.86B in 2014 (online gift card sales were $1.6B in 2009)
• 41% of their respondents indicated they had used a gift card on an ecommerce site within the last year
• Consumers completed 1.2 transactions per month with an online gift card, on average

This is very encouraging news for all of us at Plastic Jungle, as we aim to help get more from their gift cards!