Tuesday, December 3, 2013
PayPal adds gift card redemption feature
In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, alternative commerce solution firm PayPal Inc. added gift card redemption functionality to its consumer-facing payment interface PayPal Checkout. The addition is designed to help gift card users easily redeem gift cards online.
According to PayPal's corporate blog, the eBay Inc. subsidiary's move is a reaction to the difficulty experienced by many consumers in redeeming their gift cards online. "[I]f you've ever tried to buy something online with this so-called "free money," then you know a lot of e-commerce sites can't or won't accept it right off the shelf − even if other credit or debit cards of the same card brands are allowed," wrote Ed Lee, Product Management, Conversion Optimization, PayPal.
Lee added that prepaid cardholders are often forced to call card issuers or register their billing addresses on websites before they can use the cards online. "After months of research and investigations, we discovered a patent-pending and innovative way to allow the usage of prepaid gift cards so that you can seamlessly apply them to the purchase of products and services anywhere PayPal is accepted," he noted.
Lee referenced a PayPal usability study that found that only 25 percent of gift cardholders were able to register billing addresses and complete online purchases successfully.
Editorial Note:
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