Blackhawk Network Gift Card Bundles Create Flexible Holiday Gifts

Branded payments provider Blackhawk Network debuted the ability for shoppers to give people on their holiday shopping lists a variety of brands to use the balance through content expansion and multi-brand bundles on the CashStar platform, the company announced earlier this month (Nov. 3).

Per the press release, customers can now build personalized gift card bundles, choosing two complementary cards or add-on gift cards to create “experiential” bundles. This also allows retailers to pick their partners from Blackhawk’s hundreds of brands using either bundling or gift card content expansion, and then email the recipient their eGifts.

“Our holiday forecast found that multi-brand gift cards will be one of the most popular gift card categories this holiday season,” Jennifer Philo, GVP, U.S. digital commerce and loyalty, Blackhawk Network, said in a statement.

“This new bundle option has allowed us to offer yet another flexible option for a personalized multi-brand experience for consumers, while also providing retailers the opportunity to gain some additional revenue and exposure to a new customer base that they may not have been reaching,” she said.

The new bundling and gift card content expansion functionality is available to existing Blackhawk Network partners.

Related: Zip Teams With Blackhawk Network To Drive BNPL

Last month, buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform Zip, formerly known as Quadpay, collaborated with Blackhawk Network to allow customers to make gift card purchases in a variety of ways, bringing the Blackhawk network to more than five million Zip users.

The Zip BNPL installment option will be available as a payment option at GiftCards.com, GiftCardMall.com and through Blackhawk’s own platform.

As Blackhawk works with more than 500 merchants, the Blackhawk-Zip collaboration will give more people access to flexible payments in a gift card format.

Zip and Blackhawk are also teaming up to bring more retailers on board with BNPL at the point of sale (POS), collaborating to offer Zip payments using a QR code in-store. Blackhawk payment solution SpendIt and several mobile and cryptocurrency wallets will also support Zip’s BNPL options.