The prepaid payment provider Blackhawk Network is working with PayPal to bring gift cards to the digital wallet. The collaboration will include Blackhawk's broad range of physical gift cards and e-gifts, many from leading brands, Blackhawk said in a news release.

Gift cards are clearly popular with consumers, but Blackhawk said pain-points persist, and that its work with PayPal will address the most prominent complaints:

• Ensuring gift cards are always available at their fingertips
• Providing easy ways to check balances
• Ability to simply purchase and reload cards

"We are pleased to be working with PayPal, an innovator in online, mobile and retail payments," Blackhawk Network President Talbott Roche said in the release. "By allowing millions of PayPal account holders to more easily purchase, spend and reload their gift cards, we will not only improve the consumer experience with gift cards, but we will help drive increased sales for participating retail brands."

PayPal will leverage Blackhawk's Digital Platform APIs to support retail gift sales and marketing, she added, "connecting consumers to retailers through one of the industry's premier omnichannel platforms."

Patrick Gauthier, general manager, emerging retail services, PayPal, said the collaboration will provide a seamless way for consumers to purchase and spend gift cards through a PayPal account that can be accessed on a mobile device or online.

"Digitizing gift cards is one of the many ways PayPal is connecting consumers and merchants to deliver personalized commerce," he said. "This collaboration is another example of PayPal's work with industry leaders, such as Blackhawk Network, as together we continue to bridge the online and in-store worlds of commerce, helping to drive the adoption of digital payments."

PayPal and Blackhawk Network said they will also work together on the following:

• Distribution - Distribution for PayPal reloadable debit cards across Blackhawk's network of physical retail merchant locations
• Cash-in - Integration of Blackhawk Network's ReLoadIt network with PayPal's prepaid debit and reloadable solutions, delivering convenient cash-in and account top-up solutions to PayPal consumers at tens of thousands of Blackhawk Network retail merchant locations

The companies said they anticipate deploying products and services together in the first half of 2014.

Read more about mobile/digital wallets.