K-VA-T Issued 100K+ Gift Cards During Holidays Using New Platform

K-VA-T Food Stores issued more than 115,000 prepaid and gift cards this past holiday season, thanks to a new electronic payment solution it credited with smoothing the way.

The grocer implemented ACI Retail Commerce Server from New York-based ACI Worldwide, Inc. to enable it to issue and manage its own and third-party gift cards at 94 Food City stores across Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee -- a move the company said improved cash flow and reduced transaction processing costs.

“Pre-paid and gift cards are one of the fastest-growing areas of payment cards, and we wanted to be able to issue and manage our own branded gift cards in-house while adding the third-party gift card program in a very limited period of time,” noted Paul Widener, VP of information services at K-VA-T. “By working with ACI, we were able to ensure the system was up and running with a shortened delivery schedule in time for the critical holiday period.”

ACI’s Retail Commerce Server and the Value Card Management module manage fixed or variable-value cards, and handle elements of card management such as checking and changing balances, order management of bulk purchases for charitable organizations, and supporting loyalty programs or managing card end-of-life. This functionality gives K-VA-T the opportunity to expand and change its gift card program in the future, without being restricted by the technology.

Headquartered in Abingdon, Va., K-VA-T operates 102 retail food outlets in the tri-state regions of southeast Kentucky, southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee.