Gift Cards: American Express’s eGift Card
- After having run successful gift cards programmes, American Express launches eGift Card, a virtual gift card available on its website and to be used online or by phone (in stores and restaurants accepting American Express cards).
- The card costs 2.95 dollars and can contain amounts ranging from 25 to 200 dollars.
- This solution is transparent and flexible: no activation nor account balance consultation fees, no expiring date for the loaded amount, reception just a few minutes after purchase, etc.
- The US e-commerce sector has been steadily growing over the past few years, reaching 165 billion dollars in 2010. Therefore, players proposing gift cards had to adapt their offers to new consumption habits, through digital channels for instance. Google, Qualcomm and First Data, for example announced new project in the beginning of the year.
- One American household out of five holds five gift cards on average for an overall value of 100 dollars: 20% of this amount remains unused or is only partially spent. Virtual cards could become alternative solutions. Also, this market should significantly grow in the years to come, to reach 100 billion dollars by 2015 (compared to less than 500 million in 2010 (source: Business Week)).