We had not seen anything on this until today when we received an eMail from a Gift Card distributor announcing there was a change coming with Amazon Gift Cards.

The email reads:

“Effective April 2018, Amazon is adopting a general policy to remove Amazon.com and Amazon.ca Gift Cards from online gift card malls. This policy applies to all websites that sell gift cards to the public in the U.S. and Canada. Thereafter, any purchase of Amazon Gift Cards would need to be as part of an employee or customer incentive, loyalty, rewards, recognition, disbursement, or other gifting program (including points redemption).” eGifter eMail

The email goes on how a company can still purchase Amazon gift cards by registering with this particular gift card distributor.

Since we were unable to find any information on Amazon.com, we are reaching out to them on this; It is a bit unclear why Amazon is shutting down individual gift card purchases.

If we receive any clarification by Amazon on why this policy changed, we will update this story.

Obviously, there are lots of ways to fund Amazon gift cards through a buyer’s Amazon account or purchase them off-line at department, grocery, and convenience stores.

Amazon has also expanded its Amazon Cash program in both U.S. and Canada to include more locations, so even the unbanked or underbanked population has more ways today to fund their gift card balance.

Overall, we do not expect there be to any real impact on Amazon’s business or sales by Amazon third-party marketplace sellers because a few buyers can no longer purchase a gift card through a gift card distributor.

This new policy appears to apply to U.S. and Canada only.

If you have any thoughts on this latest decision by Amazon, head over to our Facebook Discussion Group or use the comments section below.