Nordstrom Streamlines B2B Gift Card Sales With CashStar

Nordstrom is broadening the scope of its B2B gift card operations by teaming up with prepaid card company CashStar.

Using CashStar Business, Nordstrom is now offering Gift Cards for Business, a program that helps its business partners order Nordstrom gift cards and manage accounts. In an announcement Tuesday (Nov. 22), Nordstrom said it will look to expand its gift card market share by being able to reach new corporate customers.

“Launching our Gift Cards for Business program gives Nordstrom a great opportunity to connect with and better serve business-to-business customers,” explained Nordstrom Director of Gift Card Sean Burrow. “CashStar’s platform will help us to provide expanded ordering options, faster fulfillment and improved account management.”

CashStar Business offers a digital platform for businesses to be able to order gift cards, preload money onto those cards and gain visibility into their orders. The launch of Nordstrom’s Gift Cards for Business follows a similar, consumer-facing initiative introduced in 2015. That effort also used CashStar’s services to allow consumers to order their gift cards online.

“We are excited about our expanded partnership with Nordstrom and focused on keeping growth and delivering exceptional customer experience with them,” said CashStar President and CEO Ben Kaplan in another statement.

Gift cards are a notoriously difficult market to grasp. Analysis by RSR Research earlier this year found that many gift card programs fail to offer a seamless, hassle-free experience for the buyer. The number of retailers that were unable to follow through with their gift card offerings doubled since 2015, the study found, with half of those businesses unable to deliver a gift card altogether.

“I suspect that many merchants are dealing with challenges that they likely never even considered when they first built their gift card offering,” said CashStar Vice President of Product Gerry Gilbert in reaction to the data. “Delivering the high-quality gifting experiences that a digital-first customer base has come to expect and addressing the increased threat of card-not-present fraud takes more resources than one would likely have initially planned for.”