Industry Insights
Cross-Border Gift Card Programs: One Program, Many Markets
How do cross-border gift card programs work? One platform holds multi-currency purses, issues cards in one market, and redeems them in another, moving value home without remittance fees.
Can a single gift card program serve customers in several countries at once? It can — provided the platform treats currency, inventory and redemption as separate decisions rather than one setting fixed at the printer.
Currency Decided Late, Not at Printing
On the Ogloba platform, individual card accounts can hold multiple balances, in purses denominated in currency or in points, and cards can be issued in one currency and redeemed in another. Cards can even be printed with no currency at all, with denomination allocated when the order is placed and shipped. For a multi-country retailer running central or regional card inventory, that removes a substantial amount of stock risk.
A Quieter Route Through the Remittance Market
Cross-border is also a money transfer conversation. The global remittances market exceeds half a trillion US dollars a year, averaging around US$2,500 per migrant, and the fees are widely regarded as expensive. A retailer present in both the sending and the receiving country can offer something cheaper: a card bought abroad, activated in real time host to host, sent by post, email or app, and redeemed in the family's local store.
Designed Within the Rules
Because loadable value is capped and spend is confined to the issuing retailer's estate, these programs sit differently from open money transfer. Ogloba supplies the platform. The retailer keeps both the customer and the sale.
FAQ
Does the currency have to be fixed when the cards are printed?
No. Cards can be printed with no currency at all, with the denomination allocated when the order is placed and shipped — which removes a substantial amount of stock risk for central or regional inventory.
Can one card account hold more than one balance?
Yes. Individual accounts can hold multiple balances in purses denominated in currency or in points, and a card can be issued in one currency and redeemed in another.
How large is the remittance market this competes with?
The global remittances market exceeds half a trillion US dollars a year, averaging around US$2,500 per migrant, and the fees are widely regarded as expensive.
Why does this sit differently from open money transfer?
Because loadable value is capped and spend is confined to the issuing retailer's estate, so the value never becomes general-purpose money moving across borders.
