Wal-Mart, Gap tap gift cards to boost sales

NEW YORK: Gap offers a gift card good at three of its clothing chains. Wal-Mart Stores is adding checkout lanes just for gift-card users. Victoria's Secret, the lingerie unit of Limited Brands, packages its cards in fancy gift boxes with a pink "Santa Bear" inside.

U.S. retailers pushing gift cards as never before this season, and for good reason: Sales of the cards will grow over six time faster than total holiday sales, to a record 24.8 billion dollar, the National Retail Federation says.

Stores like the cards because they extend the holiday shopping season well into January, when many consumers redeem them.

That means retailers have to resort less to the usual post-Christmas markdowns and can bring in new products to sell at full price to customers cashing in their cards.