This is a fantastic recipe for success. Combine a business with a solid foundation and CEO (Stacy Young), a talented user experience and dev team (Thinktiv), with smart money and strategy (Steve Waters and Thinktiventures) and you get QuickGifts.
QuickGifts today launched a new, expanded version of its integrated gift currency marketing platform that allows local and regional businesses to offer their in-store, pre-paid gift card programs across diverse online channels. The Austin-based company, founded in 2002, has spent the last decade systematically building comprehensive online solutions that allow small- to mid-size merchants to more fully capitalize on the $100 billion annual market for pre-paid gift currency. The company’s launch has been fueled by a nearly $1 million infusion of Series A capital and acceleration services led by Austin-based Thinktiv.
QuickGifts already enables dozens of corporate clients and nearly 250,000 active card shoppers to purchase and send branded gift currency from hundreds of local, regional and national merchants. The investment rapidly expanded the company’s sales and distribution partnering initiatives, which in the last 90 days have resulted in new partners selling QuickGifts solutions directly into an aggregate installed base of nearly 25,000 merchant locations.
“At QuickGifts, we are all about efficiently connecting local and regional merchants to billions of dollars of gift card sales that otherwise go to less personal national retailers,” said Stacy Young, founder and CEO of QuickGifts. “We are creating sustainable economic value for these businesses, while radically improving the consumer’s online gifting experience with enhanced choices and convenience.”
Consumers in the U.S. buy over $100 billion of merchant gift cards and pre-paid retailer gift currency each year. However, the vast majority of purchases are concentrated among the largest retail brands. Most established local merchants offer prepaid gift cards or certificates at their store location, but only a small fraction can afford the time and expense required to market, sell and fulfill their gift currency through online channels.
QuickGifts gift currency marketing and ecommerce solutions enable local and regional merchants to break down that distribution barrier and generate lucrative gift card revenue streams across online marketing channels like Facebook, Twitter, email marketing programs and their business Websites. As opposed to daily deals promotions, which significantly undermine store profits in exchange for driving customer traffic, QuickGifts helps merchants create ongoing new revenue streams, while increasing profit margins.
To date the average merchant on the QuickGifts platform generates roughly $7,000 in new gift card sales annually. And when recipients redeem in-store, they spend an additional 50% to 150% of the original card value, depending on the merchant category, all at fully valued prices.
“Gift card sales are the most profitable transactions for our business,” said Brent Hammer, Chef and Managing Director of Hibiscus Restaurant in Dallas. “Last year, QuickGifts generated over $13,000 in online gift card sales for Hibiscus and we estimate that figure is doubled when you consider the additional dollars spent when those cards were redeemed at our location.”
The QuickGifts platform is comprised of four gift currency marketing and ecommerce solutions, which are supported by core merchant services including card fulfillment (online and off-line), card sale transaction processing and merchant settlement.