After pulling its gift cards from retail shelves last year, eBay has once again made them available in stores.
Last fall, eBay spokesperson Ryan Moore confirmed that eBay gift cards were no longer being offered in brick-and-mortar retail locations, though he said they could still be purchased online at eBay.com. When asked why, Moore told EcommerceBytes it was a business decision.
Now, a landing page on eBay has a message, “eBay Gift Cards now available in retail stores” with a link to a page listing the stores.
Stores that now carry the eBay gift cards include supermarkets such as Hannaford, Kroger, Price Chopper and Safeway. Office supply chainstore Staples, hardware chain Lowes, bookstore chain BOOKS-A-MILLION, and convenience store chain Cumberland Farms are also among the stores listed.
eBay first launched gift cards in 2007 through a distribution deal with the Blackhawk Network, a subsidiary of Safeway and the largest provider of third-party prepaid cards. The eBay gift cards were available in stores and supermarkets nationwide in denominations of $25 and $50; consumers were required to have a PayPal account linked to their bank account or credit card in order to redeem the cards.
We’ve sent an inquiry to eBay to find out when it began making the gift cards available to stores again.
Note that eBay allows the sale of gift cards on its own site as well, see this page for more information.
