If anet had a system where you can buy a 10 dollar gift card and it adds it to your inventory as an item that you can double click to credit your account to buy a costume character slot or w/e from in game store.
The reason for making it an item is so it can be tradable between players. In your inventory is an item that says 10 dollar value NC store when you double click it it becomes used and you have that credit to your account to use in store.
This would allow players to give gifts to each other or to sell amongst themselves. No need to take the risk of using a real money trader to get ecto you can just buy a giftcard from the NC store then sell it and Anet gets the money to thier store at no extra cost to them. I think anet could make a lot of money this way.
This wasn't my idea but I think it's a great one feel free to tell me if there is some reason it sucks
K

