Dive Brief:

• Target announced Tuesday that many of the chain's gift cards sold during the recent holiday season were not activated properly and may show zero balances for their recipients.
• Stores will honor the cards, regardless of the problems, which Target says affected less than 0.1% of cards sold during the busy season.
• A Minneapolis Fox station reported that as many as 40,000 cards could have been affected, but Target disputes that number.

Dive Insight:

The 2013 holiday season will not be remembered fondly in Target offices. The company already went into damage control mode in response to a data breech that resulted in debit and credit card information getting stolen. Now, it's going to have to deal to concerns on its gift card front as well. An apology has been issued, but convincing customers to stay loyal will require a lot more.