P&I Postscripts

TOYS R US: has launched a new service that lets customers buy gift cards online. The service, available at Toysrus.com, also lets shoppers create personalized gift cards. Consumers can select from eight pre-designed gift cards or make their own featuring a photo, message or background art. Each comes with a greeting card that can also be customized and designed.

BEST WESTERN: is expanding the retail presence of its gift card in CVS/pharmacy stores nationwide. The $50 branded travel card is now available in 6,200 stores in 43 states. Other discount chains, including Wal-Mart and The Kroger Co., also carry the card. Guests can use it toward accommodations or other related items, such as room service. The card had been offered only as corporate incentives until the fall of 2005.

AMERICAN EXPRESS: is out with a new service that lets card members make monthly mortgage payments on their credit cards and earn rewards for doing so. People who enroll in the Express Rewards Mortgage program receive membership rewards, cash back, airline or hotel points or other rewards. Discounts of purchases at select retailers, including Brookstone and Linens n’ Things are also part of the program. The offer is geared toward consumers who are seeking a new or refinanced loan.

GIFT CARD GIANT: InComm has aligned with fulfillment house Archway Marketing Services to improve shipping and tracking of third-party gift cards to retailers. InComm, which supplies gift and prepaid cards to 145,000 retail locations nationally, taps Archway’s inventory and tracking expertise for a radio-frequency system that monitors card shipments by individual cards’ serial numbers. That will reduce out-of-stocks, inventory loss and card theft. Archway, which shipped 70 million cards to retailers last year, honed its serial-number tracking system on fulfillment for healthcare clients.