Mercury Payments Systems, which Vantiv recently acquired, this week launched a product called StoreCard that enables merchants to offer their customers a gift, reward, mobile payments and promotions card all in one product, according to a press release. 

Mercury said in the announcement that StoreCard is meant to help small businesses compete with larger retailers by providing a stored-value card utilizing affordable technology.

The Mercury StoreCard lets merchants brand their own reloadable card for accepting customer payments. The cardholder can use a quick-response barcode on the back of the card to access their prepaid card account on their smartphone. Customers can also convert their physical StoreCard into digital cards so they can pay for purchases using their smartphones. Merchants also have the option to offer cash-back rewards or other features to drive repeat customers, according to the press release.

Since the card is reloadable, it is intended to be a gift card as well as a payment product for the local merchant, according to the press release.

"Our hope is the cards will be given out as gifts and recipients will start using them as their primary payment card at merchants' stores," Travis Priest, vice president of value-added services for Mercury, said in a statement. "Users can track both current balances and rewards totals on their phone and don't have to worry about keeping track of loyalty and gift cards for their favorite local stores."