epay and Thalia introduce gift cards from popular brands in all bookstores

Martinsried / October 21, 2025

epay, the leading full-service provider for payment and gift card solutions, is launching third-party distribution of gift cards in collaboration with Thalia, the first bookstore chain to offer this service. Customers can now find popular gift cards from well-known brands in all 360 Thalia bookstores in Germany—from gaming, streaming, entertainment, and shopping to prepaid and mobile top-ups. 

The rollout initially takes place at the POS: small and large rotating columns offering a wide selection of gift cards are set up in bookstores. The service will be integrated into the online shop at a later date.  

epay is supporting Thalia in its entry into third-party gift card sales right from the start with its full-service approach: from the conception of the product range and provision of cards from well-known brands to the design of the rotating columns and the technical interfaces to the POS systems, and later the online shop as well. epay also handles secure code authorization, accounting, and ancillary marketing services. This allows Thalia to offer a professional gift card portfolio with no additional organizational effort and to immediately provide its customers with an enhanced shopping experience. 

“This important and enormously valuable third-party sales project we are launching with Thalia also marks our entry into the book trade. Our gift card brand partners also benefit from this new sales channel because it allows them to tap into new customer groups,” said Dr. Markus Landrock, Managing Director epay DACH, Global Issuing, Payments & Rewards. 

“In introducing gift cards from well-known brands from epay, we are specifically expanding our portfolio with attractive gift options. We are delighted to have epay as an extremely proficient partner at our side, offering us a full-service solution from a single source. Our customers benefit from the large range on offer and can now find almost all relevant gift products in-store,” says Dennis Book, Sales Director at Thalia. 

epay and Thalia have a long tradition of working together, having already implemented large projects together in the past—including modernizing the payment infrastructure with new network operation, self-checkouts, and Thalia’s own gift card. The technical solutions that make this possible are via a single interface at the checkout. This also applies to the new range of brand vouchers at the Thalia checkout. Both partners are now further expanding their successful collaboration with this new gift card offering in the non-book sector.  

Information about epay’s payment and gift card solutions: https://www.epay.de

About epay

epay, a Euronet business segment, is a leading global provider of payment processing and prepaid products and solutions. The company has built an extensive network of retail touchpoints in 64 countries, connecting brands with consumers around the world. The company offers a broad portfolio of services, products and solutions that support the distribution of payment, branded payments and mobile for more than 1,000 brand partners via commerce, e-commerce and m-commerce. As a provider of end-to-end solutions, epay delivers the technology and infrastructure to enable better payment solutions for partners and their customers worldwide. www.epayworldwide.com    

epay has been well established in German-speaking countries for over 28 years and is part of transact Elektronische Zahlungssysteme GmbH, a BaFin-licensed payment institution and independent network operator. epay offers a global portfolio from its base in western Munich consisting of gift cards (prepaid, closed-loop system and digital media), incentives for companies (www.cadooz.com) and payment solutions (acceptance of payment cards, payment terminals, e-commerce, mobile and alternative payment and Internet of Payment) for omnichannel retail via its own POS integration software from a single source. www.epay.de 

Image rights:
Photos: ©Shahram Azimidizaj/epay/Thalia
Videos: ©Cinebites/epay/Thalia

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