Utah-based Merrick Bank is entering the digital gift space with a partnership with the startup Yiftee, which powers online and mobile gifting.

The deal, announced today, is another sign that banks are moving closer to the shopping experience.

Until recently, the $110 billion digital gifting space has largely been left to merchants, who use it to capture revenue before customers walk in the door, or make purchases online. Yiftee, based in Menlo Park, Calif., is focused on delivering the benefits of digital gifting to smaller, local retailers. The space has historically been dominated by large national players.

The payment processor First Data made a similar but more aggressive move in the space on July 30, purchasing the San Francisco-based digital gift startup Gyft for an undisclosed sum.

Lori Laub, Yiftee’s co-founder, explained her company’s online offering in this way in a company press release: “Once installed on a merchant’s website, the optional ‘Yiftee- eGift’ button allows customers to send gifts directly from the merchant’s page without the headaches of gift card tracking, accounting, validating, inventory and tying up cash in advance.” Recipients of Yiftee gifts care notified by email, text, or Facebook message.

Merrick’s customers include more than 60 ISOs, who help retailers open and manage merchant accounts. The ISOs and acquiring banks that use Merrick’s services represent over 120,000 merchants.

“We’re excited to share the Yiftee product with our partners as an additional value-added program,” said Deborah Camm, vice president of business development of Merrick. “Partnering with innovative companies like Yiftee can help to drive ISO [independent sales organization] growth, while reducing fraud risk and concurrently increasing revenue opportunities.”

Merrick Bank, founded in 1997, is the 16th largest credit card acquirer in the United States.

Yiftee has $4 million in total funding to date.