Social gifting start-up DropGifts is expanding to SA soon and will allow users to send gift vouchers for local retailers to their friends via Facebook.
The firm is based in Berlin and has already been operating in the UK, France and Germany. According to DropGifts, SA is a very attractive market for the service, given the country's relatively high number of Facebook users.
Local retailers already on board are Sportsmans Warehouse, Wantitall, 5 Rooms, Glossybox and Zando. DropGifts says it is also in negotiations with other large local retailers that will be revealed at the time of the launch.
“What makes DropGifts different from what PayPal, Amazon, etc, are doing is that DropGifts offers multiple retailers' gift cards,” says DropGifts, explaining that it doesn't sell DropGift-branded gift cards, but rather the merchants' physical and virtual gift cards.
The service also allows for “group gifts”, whereby one friend may start the gift card at a certain amount, and other friends can then chip in to increase that total.
According to DropGifts, the market for gift cards is “quite substantial”, and it is expected that a large portion of that market share will be moving online.
“Add to this the fact that approximately 70% of South African consumers rely on social networks to guide their purchases and one can see the high potential for social gifting.”
DropGifts SA MD Kevin Tucker says: “The gift card market is already a $100 billion market in the US alone, and in SA it really is growing in maturity. We're seeing all kinds of gifts cards on sale, and now we're bringing that to Facebook and smartphones (with our DropGifts app).”
DropGifts SA says it will launch locally before the end of the first quarter.
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