By Raphael Michilis
American digital gift card corporation Giftango has kicked off its European expansion plans with the opening of an office in Ireland and the partaking of its first ten partners in the UK.
This bigger step comes after about a year of “conversations with leading European merchants and the corporate programs that buy gift cards from them,” said Marcell King, vice-president of Merchant and International Development for Giftango.
Giftango will supply its partners’ customers with digital coupons issued nearly instantly,that will replace the currently printed gift cards and coupons that take days to be issues and received by post.
“We love that our program participants will now be able to receive their vouchers by email or SMS to their PC’s and smart phones,” says Kevin Lake, CEO of Countdown a loyalty program firm operated by MB Solutions (Holdings) Limited, and one of Giftango first partners in the UK.
“We’ve been a long- time proponent of delivering digital vouchers in our programs. It’s great for the consumer, it’s great for the merchant, and it’s great for us. We’re excited that our partnership with Giftango will enable us to expand our portfolio of digital vouchers,” said Jonathan Grey, CEO of Ovation Incentives, another Giftango UK partner.
The first lots of digital cards will be aimed to the corporate segment, which accounted for 52% of the total vouchers sales in the UK in 2011, according to Giftango.
“We learned a few things taking this thoughtful approach. The UK B2B gift card market is poised to yield a very high return for those corporations and merchants launching digital gift cards. The opportunities for digital gifting developing in both the mobile and social markets cannot be denied. Today we’re introducing a corporate eGift product that fits the UK market,” said King.
Giftango’s digital coupon B2B Channel Program will initially include Marriott, Hotel Voucher Shop, Theatre Tokens, Travelocity Gift Cards and SpaFinder.
American digital gift card corporation Giftango has kicked off its European expansion plans with the opening of an office in Ireland and the partaking of its first ten partners in the UK.
This bigger step comes after about a year of “conversations with leading European merchants and the corporate programs that buy gift cards from them,” said Marcell King, vice-president of Merchant and International Development for Giftango.
Giftango will supply its partners’ customers with digital coupons issued nearly instantly,that will replace the currently printed gift cards and coupons that take days to be issues and received by post.
“We love that our program participants will now be able to receive their vouchers by email or SMS to their PC’s and smart phones,” says Kevin Lake, CEO of Countdown a loyalty program firm operated by MB Solutions (Holdings) Limited, and one of Giftango first partners in the UK.
“We’ve been a long- time proponent of delivering digital vouchers in our programs. It’s great for the consumer, it’s great for the merchant, and it’s great for us. We’re excited that our partnership with Giftango will enable us to expand our portfolio of digital vouchers,” said Jonathan Grey, CEO of Ovation Incentives, another Giftango UK partner.
The first lots of digital cards will be aimed to the corporate segment, which accounted for 52% of the total vouchers sales in the UK in 2011, according to Giftango.
“We learned a few things taking this thoughtful approach. The UK B2B gift card market is poised to yield a very high return for those corporations and merchants launching digital gift cards. The opportunities for digital gifting developing in both the mobile and social markets cannot be denied. Today we’re introducing a corporate eGift product that fits the UK market,” said King.
Giftango’s digital coupon B2B Channel Program will initially include Marriott, Hotel Voucher Shop, Theatre Tokens, Travelocity Gift Cards and SpaFinder.
