Yelp now lets local business owners sell gift certificates through their profile page

Yelp has announced its latest product feature for small business owners…gift certificates.

This launch follows on from Yelp Deals which officially launched last summer, after a testing phase which kicked off the previous August.

This latest roll-out means that companies can now sell gift certificates direct to customers via their Yelp business profile page.

As with most gift certificates, the ones available through merchants listed on Yelp offer full-value cash equivalents – the service was actually tested earlier this year to gauge response in the build up to the full launch today.

Yelp kicked off initially as an email recommendation service following a stint in San Francisco incubator MRL Ventures, before launching in its current form in 2004. Back in June, we reported that Yelp was bringing more content to Bing Local searches, delivering review snippets, photos, and business details for Bing users in the US.