ABA Announces a New Electronic Gift Card Program

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As was announced at this year's BookExpo America in Los Angeles, the American Booksellers Association has signed a letter of intent with Givex to launch a national electronic gift card program for stores participating in the Book Sense marketing program.

The flexible program will allow booksellers to choose the level of technology they wish to use to manage the sale and redemption of gift cards. Book Sense gift cards will ultimately replace the current paper gift certificates.

"The beauty of Givex," said ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz, "is that it's not tied to any credit card processing system. It's a stand-alone system" that would allow booksellers to use it in a number of ways -- either via the Internet, one of a choice of two specialized processing machines, or telephone.

Details, including program pricing and requirements, technical and otherwise, will be announced shortly. Watch for details in upcoming issues of Bookselling This Week. Booksellers with questions about the gift card program should send an e-mail to Jill Perlstein, ABA marketing director, at [email protected] or call (800) 637-0037, ext. 1283.