Buyatab brought retail, incentive marketing and banking participants together in Toronto in June 2017 for a one-day summit on digital gift cards and payments. Its July 14 recap highlighted two themes: the emotional purpose of giving a card and the financial motives behind fraud. [S01]

More than the amount on the card

James Connell, then vice president of ecommerce and marketing at Roots, led a session on emotional connections through digital channels. His presentation treated a gift card as a way for the giver to offer choice and a purchasing experience, as well as monetary value.

That was a customer relationship argument, rather than a reported experiment showing how much repeat purchasing increased. The recap did not provide a measured loyalty or sales uplift.

The same value attracts fraud

Chris Falk, identified as Buyatab's chief technology officer at the time, discussed fraud. The company summarized two motives from his session: turning value into cash quickly and obtaining purchasing power on a payment card. [S01]

Putting these sessions together gave programme teams a useful tension to consider. The ease and flexibility that make gift cards attractive to legitimate buyers also require attention to how value can be misused. The published recap described the issues discussed, but did not disclose the underlying fraud statistics or specific control outcomes.