Yahoo, Arroweye to offer personalized gift cards for multiple retailers

In a new venture with Arroweye Solutions Inc., Yahoo Inc. will offer gift cards that online shoppers can personalize with their own photos and text. Arroweye provides card-design technology and fulfillment of the cards, which can be redeemed online or offline at retailers including Linens ‘n Things, Circuit City Stores Inc. and Waterford.

Jeff Keller, chief customer officer at Arroweye, says the deal with Yahoo expands a unique range of services from Arroweye that let consumers upload photos to the web, insert them into greeting/gift card formats for one of multiple retailers, and have them delivered to a recipient who could then redeem them either offline or online at the chosen retailer. Although Wal-Mart Stores Inc. lets shoppers personalize cards online for print-out in its stores, the Arroweye system is unique for its online fulfillment and usability across several retailers, Keller says.

The Yahoo service is already available to some registered users of Yahoo.com at the Yahoo Photo Prints and Gifts page, though not all users will have access until Yahoo rolls out the updated release of Yahoo! Photos to their entire user base, an Arroweye spokeswoman says. Users of the service will load photos to Yahoo, then link to Arroweye’s Cardways.com to design cards and request delivery. Payment transactions occur through the Cardways checkout process.

Arroweye, which charges a one-time set-up fee ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 to connect a partner site to Cardways.com, also makes it card-customizing service available directly to retailers. Retailers who are direct users of Arroweye’s card-customizing service include Toys ‘R’ Us, Macy’s, eBags.com, Lids.com and Overstock.com. Retailers who connect directly to Cardways.com receive a 28% share of the $4.50 shoppers pay to design a card.

Retailers also have the option of using their own online shopping cart to complete the purchase transaction or processing transactions through the shopping cart on Cardways.com, an option popular with restaurant chains such as Quiznos, Keller says.