I was brainstorming with my wife how we can make gifting pre-owned goods less taboo. And that made me wonder if it's possible to create a gift card program where the purchased gift card can be used to redeem any refurbished or preowned items.
If you believe 'recommerce' can help transition society to become more sustainable, you can gift someone this card.
Here's an example of what I'm imagining: I gift my niece this $100 gift card, and she can spend it on a Best Buy refurbished item if she wants, or Apple refurbed product, or Patagonia's Worn-Wear program. The card should not work on brand new items.
What I'd like help validating is the technical challenges of the idea, not in the consumer demand. I think the technical side is challenging because it's trying to do something more flexible than a closed loop gift card (because the card should be accepted by 'any' or at least multiple merchants), but less flexible than open loop cards where pretty much anything could be bought. See below link for definitions of closed vs open loop.
Another aspect I'd like to riff on is what are the incentives for a retailer to become a partner of this theoretical program?
https://www.giftcards.com/gcgf/open-loop-versus-closed-loop-gift-cards