Card Commerce opens up the Irish and UK gift card markets in a 3 year, €4 Million deal with euroConex
September 24 2006 : Plastic ‘credit card style’ gift cards, which, until now have generally only been available in a select number of large retail outlets, will soon be made more accessible to retailers across the country in any shop which uses euroConex for debit and credit card processing. euroConex is Ireland’s market leader in debit and credit card processing and holds a sizeable market share in the UK and on the continent. In addition to the retail sector, euroConex’s network also includes hotel, restaurant, petrol and tourism sectors.
Sasha, the nationwide fashion retailer with 47 stores around Ireland will be one of the first retailers to launch a gift card programme on the euroConex/Card Commerce platform.
The agreement, which will be worth around €4million over the next three years will see Card Commerce’s managed gift card platform, PayPlus OnDemand, made available to euroConex’s network of merchants across Europe. The system will initially be available through Bank of Ireland and Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank, euroConex’s partner banks in Ireland and the UK, before being rolled out into the broader European network.
Card Commerce is the Dublin-based provider of gift card and prepaid debit card solutions who, last year, installed Eason’s gift card scheme nationwide. The company will provide individually branded gift cards to each of euroConex’s customers, and will also manage distribution of POS and merchandising materials. When coupled with a standard ‘gift cards in a box’ merchandising and POS kit., this approach offers retailers, particularly Single Outlet Stores (SOSs), an easy and cost effective way to deploy gift cards by using the same terminal they currently use to process credit and debit cards.
A plastic card based alternative to traditional paper vouchers, gift card schemes have proven to increase retail sales of traditional vouchers by an average of 20%. In the US, gift cards currently make up 5% of total retail spend. euroConex and Card Commerce believe that the roll out of this system in 2006 will result in gift cards accounting for €1 billion of retail spend in Ireland within the next 5 years.
Today’s announcement means that all retailers, from large multi-national retailers to small single outlet stores, can enjoy the benefits and increased sales of having their own uniquely branded gift cards. In addition to increasing sales when compared to paper vouchers, gift cards also allow retailers to cut costs in the areas of loss through fraud, secure distribution and production.
Card Commerce Marketing Director, Scott McInnes said today, “The gift card market in the US has really taken off in the past ten years and currently accounts for €60bn of total retail spend. In Ireland and the rest of Europe, the demand has been a lot slower. The roll out of this partnership will effectively make gift cards available to the masses, and we expect to see a significant rise in the number of gift card programmes in 2006 as a result.
“The fact that Europe has been slower to respond is not down to consumers, but rather that gift card schemes, up until now, have been costly to install and to manage. As a result, they were generally only available to the largest retailers. However by making PayPlus OnDemand available over euroConex’s merchant network, every retailer from the smallest shop to the largest retail chain will be able to offer a complete gift card service to their customers and avail of the same benefits”.
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About Card Commerce
Card Commerce is a leading provider of solutions and services that allow retailers to harness the benefits of gift card and other types of prepaid debit card. Founded in 2004, Card Commerce is a privately owned company based in Dublin, Ireland. For further information, please visit www.card-commerce.com.
About euroConex
euroConex is the European affiliate of NOVA Information Systems and a wholly owned subsidiary of US Bancorp. The company provides an integrated payments processing service to financial institutions and merchants in more than 30 European countries using a multi-currency platform. In addition to Point of Sale, International Point of Sale and eCommerce solutions, euroConex also provides a range of specialist multi-currency products including Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC). For more information visit www.euroconex.com.
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For further information please contact:
| Eoin Whyte Business Development Director ewhyte@card-commerce.com 0870 735 2829 (UK) |
Karen McConville Marketing Executive kmcconville@card-commerce.com 0870 735 2829 (UK) |