Blackhawk Opens Digital Gift Platform to suretap Users (May 5, 2014)
Digital gift cards are getting a boost in Canada as Blackhawk Network and Rogers Communications have opened Blackhawk’s digital gift card platform to users of the Rogers suretap mobile wallet app. Among the major Canadian retailers whose gift cards now are available over suretap are, Indigo, Swiss Chalet, Montana’s Cookhouse and Earls Restaurants, with more retailers to be added in the coming months. suretap users can redeem the cards by having the merchant scan a barcode displayed within the smartphone app. The platform also enables users to send gift cards to friends and family and add existing plastic gift cards to the mobile wallet.
“Canadians are eager for access to e-gift options, yet few retailers are making them available,” said Steve Dekker, managing director of Blackhawk Canada. “This is a significant opportunity to connect a new customer base with the digital gift card solutions it wants, which can readily be used for purchases from favorite brands and retailers.”
For Rogers, adding the Blackhawk platform should give the one-month-old suretap a leg up in the Canadian mobile wallet market, where competition lately has been heating up. Several of the country’s biggest financial institutions, including Royal Bank of Canada and BMO Bank of Montreal—have launched wallets over the past two years. Canada is considered a prime market for mobile wallets due to its highly banked population, consolidated banking industry, broad smartphone penetration and government support for emerging payment technologies.
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