's Customers Performance

Retail Distribution
Our retail distribution network consists of our physical distribution partners, our websites GiftCardMall.com, GiftCardLab.com, GiftCards.com, NimbleCommerce.com and third-party online and digital merchants.
The following table illustrates selected examples of our direct distribution partners across various retail channels:
Distribution Channel

Examples



Grocery
Ahold, Albertsons/Safeway, Giant Eagle, Kroger, Publix


Specialty
Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, The Home Depot, Lowe’s, Michaels, Office Depot, Staples


Convenience
Kroger Convenience Stores, QuikTrip, Wawa


Other Retail
JCPenney, Kmart, Kohl’s, Sears


Digital
Amazon.com, eBay.com, GiftCards.com, Staples.com, PayPal.com, Samsung Pay


International
Albert Heijn, Australia Post, Carrefour, Coles, Loblaws, Morrisons, Rewe, Sobeys, Tesco, Woolworths
In the United States, our retail distribution network principally consists of grocery, specialty, convenience, other retail and digital or online retailers. Grocery retailers are especially well suited for selling a broad mix of prepaid products, since they primarily sell groceries and do not view the consumer-branded gift cards as competitive with the merchandise they sell in their own stores. As of January 2, 2016, we had over 45,000 active retail distribution locations in the U.S. across approximately 135 retail distribution partners.

Outside the United States, we have followed a similar strategy of contracting with leading grocery chains and other retail channels, including convenience store chains which are higher trafficked internationally than in the U.S. We expanded our international presence through our 2013 acquisition of Retailo AG and its subsidiaries (collectively, Retailo and now renamed Blackhawk Network GmbH), a leading third-party gift card distribution network in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In certain countries, including Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and South Africa, we distribute through sub-distributors that contract with in-country retailers for sale of our products.

Our sales and marketing teams manage our relationships with content providers, retail distribution partners and incentive business clients. They also develop retail marketing programs and communication strategies to reach our consumers. We provide or fund product display fixtures and provide or coordinate merchandising visits intended to maintain in-stock conditions on the displays. We also manage or participate in the design of effective in-store marketing programs funded jointly by our content partners and distribution partners. In addition, we use online marketing in connection with our financial services products, GiftCardMall.com, GiftCardLab.com, GiftCards.com, IncentiveCardLab.com, OmniCard.com and Cardpool.com. For our incentive business clients, we provide research papers, consumer and employee analyses and other tools and services to develop their incentive and reward programs.