Pine Labs starts selling gift cards on Blinkit and Zepto
A payments company has put prepaid cards on ten minute apps, which turns a planned purchase into an impulse one and opens a shelf brands did not have.
- Gift cards now sold through Blinkit and Zepto, with Roblox cards added for gaming distribution.
- Issuing and acquiring processing is described as a near Rs 100 crore annual revenue business across about 20 countries.
- 125,000 to 130,000 terminals expected to be deployed during the year.
- Meal, fuel and expense cards are slated for launch by October.
Pine Labs has begun selling gift cards through quick commerce platforms Blinkit and Zepto, and is entering gaming distribution with Roblox gift cards. It is a distribution move rather than a product one, and it changes what a gift card is.
The company described its credit issuing and acquiring processing operation as an annual revenue business of nearly Rs 100 crore spanning around 20 countries, and expects to deploy 125,000 to 130,000 terminals during the year. Meal cards, fuel cards and expense cards are due by October. Internationally it has signed British Airways for gift card services and deployed 30,000 terminals with GCash in the Philippines.
Notably, management did not address breakage or unredeemed balances, which is a significant omission in a gift card business since that is usually where the economics sit.
For brands the opening is real. A gift card has always been a planned purchase requiring a decision and a visit. On a ten minute app it becomes available at the moment somebody remembers a birthday, which is a large and frequent occasion that had no fast answer before.
The caution is margin. A card carries no product margin of its own, so a platform take has to come out of the goods eventually redeemed or out of breakage. Work out which before listing.
Zane’s analysis draws on original reporting by Entrackr. Read the original report.