First Data

There’s been a lot of recent discussion about secondary markets for gift cards, and people have been asking if and why First Data is getting involved in that space.

There are many examples of secondary markets that have developed for consumers to buy and sell pre-owned products. The Internet has helped facilitate growth in this business model and today it’s easy to find sites that specialize in the resale of products such as coins, furniture, and automobiles.

We believe a similar market exists for gift cards and in support of that market, we’re announcing a partnership with GiftCodes.com , a division of Wolfe.com . GiftCodes.com and its sister websites create a network of options for consumers to trade in unwanted cards. Buyers on the site can then opt to receive an electronic gift code immediately or have a physical card printed on demand and delivered by mail.

Two key elements for the secondary gift card market to succeed are traffic and trust. We believe that integration to processor platforms, like our own, will help dramatically reduce fraud and increase trust. This will lead to higher traffic to the sites as buyers feel more confident that they’ll get the value they paid for.

As we’ve noted in the past , we see a well-managed secondary gift card market as a win for all parties, especially consumers and merchants. When gift cards can be more efficiently matched with personal preferences it will drive incremental store visits and brand loyalty.

Gift cards remain popular for many occasions, and U.S. gift card sales grew in the first half of the year, with some segments seeing double digit growth. With so many gift cards to choose from and with safe ways to trade in unwanted cards, there are more ways than ever before to get the right gift card into the right hands.