What: A Journal du Net column argues that gift card distributors have become audience ecosystems and advertising networks, making the gift card a media platform for retailers.

Why it is important: Gift card distributors sell paid visibility, a new media cost for any department store that sells gift cards through them.

Writing in Journal du Net, Clémence Mazars of Buybox says gift card distributors have stopped being simple sales channels. The move from physical to digital cards saturated retailers' catalogs, so platforms became advertising networks that monetize their audience and use users' purchase-history data. A retailer's goal shifts from being listed to holding a visible, consistent position in the distributor's catalog.

Mazars notes that retailers usually activate gift cards only at peak periods such as Christmas, Black Friday and Mother's Day. The column describes retailers planning around a brand calendar instead: mass exposure for awareness, a new product line launch, or acquisition when purchase intent forms.

Visibility is paid for in one of two ways, a dedicated media budget or, for retailers with fewer resources, a temporary higher commission to the distributor, similar to affiliate marketing. Mazars frames the spend as an investment aimed at undecided consumers, planned and measured over time.

The column ends by calling the gift card a brand currency that serves acquisition, loyalty and retention while offering advertising space, and says retailers should pick distributors able to activate the brand.

IADS Notes: Orange Advertising opened store screens and operator data to the sellers on its marketplace, so partner sellers can now buy visibility (Orange Advertising, October 2026). Selfridges set a rate card for its in-store and digital assets and approached non-endemic brands, starting with a Disney Christmas campaign (Mi3, November 2025). UK online retail media grew 32% to £2bn in the first half of 2026 as commerce data moved from conversion targeting to full-funnel brand building (Internet Retailing, October 2026). Retail media loses credibility when ad revenue outranks relevance (The Robin Report, August 2026), and brands hold back in-store budgets until effect can be proven (Journal du Net, October 2026).