Online gift card platform Tbay introduced “Quick Sell Mode,” designed to make card transactions faster.
The program aims to reduce gift card transaction time by at least 20%, according to a Wednesday (Dec. 27) press release.
The company also implemented a series of measures designed to make transactions safer, such as requiring card vendors to have more than three years of work experience, a good credit record, and certain capital and annual income standards.
“The security of gift card transactions is a pain point for the industry, and Tbay prioritizes safety, promoting the slogan ‘You are in safe hands’ to establish a secure link between sellers and buyers,” the release said.
The announcement follows a holiday shopping season in which gift cards emerged as the second-most favored holiday present choice, with more than a third of shoppers saying they planned to purchase them.
The prevalence of gift cards makes sense, PYMNTS wrote this month, “given the fact that we’re living in such an inflationary environment, and the cards themselves can boost a recipient’s spending power at a favored store or site.”
Elsewhere, PYMNTS explored the advantages digital gift cards have over their plastic counterparts.
“Often, recipients stow away these cards in their wallets or purses, unintentionally overlooking them amidst the accumulation of their belongings over time, resulting in these once-considerate gifts going untouched,” PYMNTS wrote in September. “Expiration dates on specific gift cards only worsen the situation, placing recipients at risk of forfeiting the card’s value.”
At the same time, gift cards can also present a risk when it comes to fraud, Doriel Abrahams, head of risk at Forter, told PYMNTS in an interview last month.
He said that while food and beverage retailers see only 5% of their “traffic” tied to gift cards — those same cards account for half of the fraud they experience.
Fraudsters like gift cards for their easily monetizable nature. With stolen credit card information, scammers can buy gift cards and resell them or use them for purchases.
“A gift card is essentially the online world’s version of cash,” Abarhamas said at the time.
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