The Nilson Report : Giift.com loyalty program support
More than 40% of loyalty program reward points are never used. In part, because many points are earned for products or services rarely used. It is also true that many issuers of reward points have not deployed the smartphone-based redemption systems desired by a growing number of their customers.
Giift created a global marketplace in 2012 to let consumers convert reward points they can’t use into gifts they want.
Today, there are 25,000 merchants operating in 55 countries in the Giift marketplace. The company’s sales team works to bring smaller merchants into the marketplace so consumers have local redemption options, not just global brands. The company hopes to have 50,000 merchants by year-end.
Last year, Giift processed 50 million transactions for loyalty points, rewards, miles, and private label prepaid cards valued at more than $2.50 billion.
There are 25 million consumers in the Giift.com marketplace.
The company started in Singapore, where it could easily connect issuers of points with merchants looking to find new customers. Giift works with banks, airlines, retailers, and other businesses to create a closed-loop network outside of in-kind operations such as airline miles for flights and hotel points for rooms. Its marketplace lets issuers work only with redemption partners of their choosing. The Giift platform is optimized for mobile redemption of reward points. In the Middle East, consumers remain interested in redeeming points at the Giift website. In China, 100% of redemptions occur using a smartphone.
For redemption of loyalty points, consumers use Giift’s proprietary technology to create private label prepaid cards they use at participating merchants. In China, Giift works with Alipay and WeChat Pay to assist in QR code-based redemptions.
Mobile users download the Giift app or use the Giift tool integrated with the mobile app of their loyalty points issuer.
Banks can outsource loyalty programs to Giift. They integrate with the marketplace and then customize the redemption option they want to offer their cardholders. Integrations take from 30-90 days. Giift says midsized banks get a loyalty program that looks like a program from a big bank.
So far, 27 credit card issuers have integrated with Giift, which also works to facilitate promotions between issuers and merchants.
Laurent Xatart is Chief Executive Officer at Giift.com in New York, (646) 838-4167, [email protected], www.giift.com.
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