Venmo and Hallmark are jazzing up cash gifts

Payment companies like Venmo are taking a new approach to the upcoming holiday season. With its new partnership with Hallmark, Venmo has launched a product targeted at the physical card and gift giving business. The new partnership allows customers to send physical Hallmark cards with a QR code that can be scanned to receive money into a customer’s Venmo account. 

The product

The jazzed up cash gifts work like this: Customers can select a card from Hallmark’s new product line, scan the QR code inside the card, choose the amount they want to give, and add the receiver’s Venmo username, email or phone number. Once received, recipients can scan the QR code inside the card and receive their gift. The gifts have to be redeemed within 180 days, after which the money will be returned to the sender’s Venmo account. 
Currently, the new Hallmark + Venmo Cards range offers cards for occasions like Birthday, Congrats, Wedding, Holiday, and Everyday cards. A total of 16 different cards appear to be available on the website at the moment. 

The context

Cash gifts are popular among Americans and specifically among Venmo customers. A survey by Venmo’s corporate parent, PayPal, indicates that 78% of its customers regularly use the app to send money to their loved ones. Recipients, on the other hand, are partial to gifts in cash with research showing that 36% of men and 45% of women prefer to receive paper money or digital money transfers as gifts, which is higher than their preferences for any other types of presents.

These gifts are spent on a variety of things: the top three uses include paying bills, buying something special, or handling everyday expenses. For Venmo, the partnership with Hallmark seems like a formalization of a social user behavior that is already popular within its consumer base.

PayPal also launched Tap to Pay through Venmo in June this year. Earlier, Venmo launched teen accounts and debit cards, allowing parents to send money to their kids through the app. Its recent offering with Hallmark seems to complement its earlier announcements, which target the upcoming holiday season. Combined with a graphic and colorful $4.99 greeting card, the partnership is meant to add some ceremony around the already ongoing practice of cash gifts through the app.

“Collaborating with Hallmark not only brings Venmo into the physical gifting space, but also helps connect generations accustomed to giving physical greeting cards with cash to younger generations who are used to having everything digital – like a grandparent sending a birthday gift to their grandchild or a family celebrating a recent graduation,” said Erika Sanchez, Vice President and General Manager at Venmo.