(Yicai Global) June 7 -- Carrefour China confirmed that the hypermarket chain operator, majority owned by Chinese retail giant Suning.Com, has temporarily restricted payments with gift cards to as much as 20 percent of the bill in some cities to prevent scalpers from cashing out.

After customers said they could only pay for up to 20 percent of the goods they bought using Carrefour China gift cards some days ago, the Shanghai-based company told Yicai Global yesterday that the reports were true.

Carrefour China's data recently showed that the share of consumers using the cards in some areas has become abnormal again, so it changed policy on such payments for now in some cities to curb a malicious run on goods by scalpers, the firm noted. That should guarantee normal inventory levels to meet consumer demand, it added.

The policy will be eased again when the share of payments made with gift cards falls, Carrefour China pointed out, noting that it hopes customers can understand the reason for the move and support it.

Earlier this year, shelves at some Carrefour China stores were empty and gift cards could only be used to pay for selected products, but the situation has since improved.

The company identified a supply issue and adjusted its supply chain at the time, including stocking up on hot-selling items, removing poor-selling goods, and changing suppliers' payment methods, it said.

Carrefour China's net loss was CNY471 million (USD66.5 million) in the first half of last year and CNY3.3 billion (USD465.8 million) in 2021, according to its earnings reports. The loss was CNY795 million in 2020.

Carrefour entered China in 1995 and expanded quickly early on, securing a relatively large market share. But profits began to decline as competition intensified. In 2019, the French retailer sold 80 percent of its loss-making China business to Suning for CNY4.8 billion (USD699 million at the time) and provided it with a shareholder loan as operating funds.

Editor: Martin Kadiev