November 2012 - Woohoo Gifting Blog

The Peter England Weddings Collection Now In Stores!

What could be more important to a man than his wedding day? It’s an important, momentous occasion, and only the very best of wardrobe will do on that day. If you are looking to gift the groom, his special wardrobe for the big day, you’re lucky this year. Because Peter England, India’s most trusted apparel brand has come out with a brand new Weddings Collection. If the wedding is over Christmas or even during spring, it’s just the perfect time to check out the new collection now. You can trust Peter England to use the perfect quality of fine fabrics and cuts in its exclusive collection of suits, blazers and other wedding apparel. The groom can choose from a range of western silhouettes and Indian ethnic wedding suits, or a fusion of both – Peter England has something for every man’s special taste.

Enjoy the feel of lush, rich fabric, experience the sharp outlines. Help the groom, feel and look the greatest on his special day, through the Peter England gift card. On his wedding day, during the ceremonies or during the lunch/ dinner reception; your friend or loved one needs all the assurance he can get. Nothing can be more assuring than the grandeur and purity of lustrous fabric and superior cut on one’s body. Your friend will stand taller, look sharper and very much the man of the hour, and it’s in your power to give all that to him – via a Peter England gift card.

It’s winter again! Time To Check Out The New Allen Solly Collection!!

Winter is here! It’s just perfect to reach for something warm. If you’re planning to reach for your old warm cardigan and woolen tights, wait! It’s 2012, and it’s time to update your winter wardrobe! Time to get some sleek, knitted winter wear in bright colors and the latest styles. Time to head over to Allen Solly, India’s favorite smart casuals brand for men and women, and explore their new Autumn-Winter collection! The Allen Solly stores are also having the Winter Dress Fest where you can get featured in Elle magazine and get discount coupons too.

Have a Hot Friday all Winter!

Winter casuals need no longer be boring and bulky. Allen Solly uses high-grade thin yarn weaving that ensures your winter wear is slim and elegant. Have you noticed how winter seems synonymous with the relaxed feeling you get on Fridays? Winter has that way about it – it makes you feel nice and cozy and warm inside out. How about wearing a colorful, striped mid-thigh length cardigan over black woolen tights to work this Friday? How about having a Hot Friday, the Allen Solly style?

It’s a Perfect Gift Too!!

While enjoying the Hot Friday winter assortment from Allen Solly, how about spreading the joy? After all it’s winter, and it’s going to be Christmas soon? It’s the perfect time to gift your spouse, friend or family member an Allen Solly gift card for a new winter wardrobe. They won’t say No! Everyone in your family will love to cozy themselves up in the colorful, fashion-forward Allen Solly winter wear. Simply everyone, no exception at all!

Check Out The New Arrivals And Deals At William Penn!

William Penn, the World Pen Store, is where you can see, salivate over and purchase the top of premium fine writing instruments. If you’ve always wanted to gift great pens to your son, daughter, niece or nephew; send them a William Penn gift card. They can enjoy a whole range of fabulous pens! William Penn is also celebrating some exciting new arrivals this festive season. A classy range of pens has just arrived at William Penn stores – pens of exquisite workmanship, quality, color and grip. Fine collector’s item pens from Invincia, Artista, Ferrari, DesignMate and other well-known innovators of fine writing equipments are worth a visit. There are also some amazing package deals, some great discounts, and wonderful gifts upon purchase of select items. Visit the stores or the site Don’t miss out on those!

You can become A Collector too!

Here’s your chance to start your own William Penn collection – how about a magnificent Caran d’Ache, or a hold-your-breath S.T. Dupont or Sheaffer? Or a subtly elite Conway Stewart, the elegant Omas, the innovative Fisher Sapce and the smooth Sailor, perhaps? You can have your pick of the best of the best from more than 20 famous brands! If you’re into desktop accessories (which make fine gifts, too!), check out the collection from Dalvey & El Casco, S.T. Dupont and Chamois. These fine collectors’ item pens are the best gifts for any occasion, not just festive ones. Buy William Penn gift cards for all the fans of fine writing instruments in your family or friends circle this festive season. It will be a great gift talked over a lifetime!

Time To Grab A PVR Gift Card! Don’t Miss the 3 Great Movies!

We don’t have to tell you which movies are being released end of this month, do we? One of them is the final segment of Twilight series, ‘Breaking Dawn-2’, releasing Friday, November 23^rd. Let’s also not forget the two other fabulous movies out this November! i.e ‘Life of Pi’ and ‘Talaash’!!! The fun didn’t get over with Diwali, people. The fun is only just beginning.

Anyone who’s a fan of Edward, Bella and the Cullens will be waiting for ‘Breaking Dawn-2’ with bated breath. Will Bella succeed as a vampire or not? Will the Cullens be able to defeat the Volturi? You need to know, yes, you absolutely must know! Who’s the Twilight fan in your family and friends circle – your sister, daughter, niece, wife or girlfriend? Grab a PVR Cinemas gift card at once and present it to her. It’ll be a fabulous almost-the-end-of-the-year event. Make it a wonderful celebration, too, with enough funds in the card for plenty of snacks at the PVR Cinemas Candy Bar! It’s time to have some fun!

The ‘Life of Pi’ is a fun movie that’ll make you think deeply about your life, the people in it, and the implications of living life with them. This action adventure drama film has been hailed by many critics as one of the best movies of 2012. Also the movie is being released in 3D format, making it a visually delightful experience. All this makes ‘Life of Pi’ a movie you should definitely not miss.

‘Talaash’ brings our three perennial favorites back on the screen – Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Rani Mukherjee. After ‘Ghajini’ and ‘3 Idiots’, it’s been a while Aamir has appeared in a mainstream movie. And going by the promo’s, it’s a suspense thriller that’s going to be a great watch. So three movies to treat your friends and family in the coming weeks!! Make it a fun event through PVR Cinemas Gift Cards.

Woohoo.in rides the social media wave with Facebook-based gift vouchers

As appeared in Afaqs.com on 21 Nov 2012, By Biprorshee Das

With Woohoo Friends Club, users can gift vouchers of various brands that are available with Woohoo.in on Facebook.

While the realm of social media expands, marketing on the various social platforms is getting innovative as well. Brands engaging with consumers on social media is old news; what is not is the new ideas that are being thought of to keep the consumers interested.

Woohoo.in, an online destination for gift vouchers (or gift cards) of various brands, for instance, is riding the wave, taking its services to the Facebook platform. The portal has launched a new initiative called the ‘Woohoo Friends’ Club’ that allows Facebook users to send gift cards of a wide range of merchants and brands, electronic or physical, to their friends on the social networking platform.

The gifting platform, called SoLoMap (Social to Local Marketing Platform) is the first of its kind to be launched in the Asia Pacific region, claims the company.

The gifting process is as simple as using any other social apps on the platform. On the Woohoo Friends’ Club page, the user has to sign in using his/her Facebook login. Once logged in, the friends list of the user is extracted and details regarding their birthdays are displayed.

The user can choose the gift card of the desired amount to be sent to any of his/her friends. The friend in turn receives a post, which asks for his/her address for the delivery of the card and can then go to the brand outlet to redeem the voucher.

T P Pratap, chief marketing officer and co-founder, QwikCilver (Woohoo.in’s parent company) tells afaqs! that the initiative will help its merchants engage directly and effectively with customers.

“One big challenge for brands today is how to convert their online following into footfalls. W Friends’ Club is a platform that facilitates that. It leverages the power of social media to reach a wide customer base. Through this programme, we aim to provide brands with an effective marketing platform driven by viral, word-of-mouth marketing as well as giving consumers another mode of easy gifting. The key differentiator is the capability to engage consumers, trigger and track Facebook posts on to the sales purchases at the brand stores in real time,” he says.

Pratap points out that while vouchers bought and redeemed ensures that the core objective of sales is achieved, an initiative such as this on a platform such as Facebook guarantees that a particular brand is spoken of.

“It is not advertising-led communication. The user ‘gifts’ a gift card. The logo and details of the brand are all there on their Facebook timeline. That particular post is far more effective. This is one more avenue for our partner brands,” he says.

Woohoo.in has around 70 brands that include Titan, Puma, Nike, Allen Solly and Flipkart, among others, vouchers of which the company sells online. The initiative has been built internally by the company’s technology development team.

Pratap states that as per a survey conducted by QwikCilver, the Indian gift card market has been growing at 145 percent in the last 12 months and is valued at Rs 1,800 crore.

Gift cards and E-Gift cards from Titan for the latest collection

Ok, Titan’s done it again! Two unbeatable new collections, and within the same timeframe – it’s way more than Titan fans can believe! First, there’s the Titan Edge 2012 Collection – a range of spellbinding designs from the world’s thinnest watch model. The Titan Edge watch collection is better than ever, with titanium casing, sapphire crystals, and water resistance capability of 3 ATM. Could any man resist the new Edge? We don’t think so. Then there’s the Raga Inspired by Cities collection – a wide range of spellbinding, delicate and lacy ladies watches inspired by the most memorable cities of the world. Owing a Titan Raga is every woman’s dream!

If your husband has always longed to own a Titan Edge watch, this is the best time to gift him one. The Titan Edge 2012 Collection’s launch is perfectly timed to bring you fabulous gifting choices for the festive season in November & December. Don’t deprive your husband of spending several blissful hours of staring at the new collection! Instead of buying him a watch of your choice, go ahead and buy him a World of Titan gift card or a Titan E-gift card. If it’s your wife you’re thinking of, take a look at the lyrically beautiful watches in the new Titan Raga Inspired by Cities collection. What strikes your fancy – the incomparably beautiful CANALA watch inspired by Venice, or OPERA inspired by Paris? Either way, accompany her when she goes to pick up her watch using your gift card. A chance to look at and admire the two splendorous collections – that’s a joint Diwali gift in and of itself.

Note: Image is from titanworld.com. Copyright vests with respective copyright holders.

Got a Standard Chartered or HSBC Card? Earn Bonus/Extra Points!

Do you have a Standard Chartered or HSBC credit or debit card? If you do, pat yourself on the back! That’s because you’re one of the lucky ones who can earn Bonus Points even as you spend. How does this work? Both banks have partnered with several SPECIAL partners, who reward the banks’ customers with Bonus Points upon purchase. Woohoo.in is one such designated SPECIAL partner for both HSBC and StandardChartered banks. So now when you purchase a gift card, gift voucher or E-gift card on Woohoo.in using your HSBC or Standard Chartered cards, you’ll get exciting EXTRA Bonus points.

There’s more good news for HSBC and Standard Chartered customers! The bonus points that you earn when you shop with the SPECIAL partners are over and above the Reward points you earn on your cards! This is what we call bonus points on top of bonus points! Why wait Now? Why not take advantage of this wonderful SPECIAL Bonus points offer, to make the best out of this festive season?

Note: Please also refer the bank communication & bank web sites (HSBC Extra Points & Standard Chartered Bonus Points) to know the debit/ credit cards eligible for the offer.

Koramangala is hub of Vibrancy and Innovation

As appeared in Economic Times on 12 Nov 2012, By Rashi Varshney

Come festive season and it is time to exchange gifts. Kumar Sudarsan and T P Pratap — who were collegemates in BITS-Pilani — capitalised on this demand and launched Woohoo.in, an integrated online portal for gift cards. In an interview with ET, both of them talk about Diwali season being the best time for business, and Koramangala’s role in their success. Edited excerpts:

What is Woohoo?

Woohoo.in is an e-commerce portal. It is an integrated online mega mall for gift cards. We started it on Diwali last year under our company called QwikCilver Solutions. Our founding team has experience in technology development, retail, marketing and research. Investments subsequently have been raised from Helion and Accel, two leading VC funds. The concept was born in the office of QwikCilver Solutions, Koramangala, adjacent to Jyoti Nivas College. This area has a vibrant presence and stimulates individuals looking to make a difference in some small way to some aspect of our living.

What was the rationale behind the idea?

A combination of inherent consumer research, gaps in the market for such consumer needs; and feedback from brand partners to launch such a portal gave the venture impetus. Our research studies showed that consumers have increasingly started to prefer to give gift cards to their near and dear ones. There was a need in the market for a player to offer a consolidated platform of consumers, corporate and retail brands for the prepaid and gift card category in India.

What is the scope and prospects?

The category for gift cards is growing significantly in India. This phenomenon has scaled up from across Bangalore initially — to now support consumers across more than 250 towns and cities of India. Consumer studies and data reflect that this category growth is more than 200 percent year on year. The prepaid category has the potential to grow to 10 percent of a large retailer’s topline. From another perspective, this category is estimated at Rs 1,800 crore annually.

What is Woohoo’s business model?

By leveraging our QwikCilver technology platform, we have integrated directly to the Billing POS of our partner brands at their brand stores. This enables consumers to get the same gifting experience for gift cards on Woohoo.in as they would get at the brand stores. The model works on a combination of transaction fees for providing the technology for gift cards, promotional cards, social media program management; distribution margins on sales delivered for brands gift cards and vouchers; retainer fees for managing gift card programs for brands at their exclusive stores and portals; fees for card design and card procurement.

How important is Koramangala?

The advantage of Koramangala as a launch pad is that residents here have been exposed to the concept of Gift Cards globally. Being based in Koramangala, we have focused on the Bangalore consumers and the corporate sector in the first phase. Koramangala, Indiranagar and HSR Layout has this diverse, eclectic consumer base of well-travelled individuals. Woohoo focused on the clients in Bangalore market since its inception. As the founding team has lived and was based in Koramangala and Indiranagar, we focused on this market.

Our efforts have helped in our business getting signed and deployed by most of the leading stores in Koramangala such as, PVR-Forum Mall, Landmark Stores-Forum Mall, Shoppers Stop in Koramangala, World of Titan stores, Flipkart, Fastrack Outlets, Helios Outlet, Peter England, Van Heusen, Cafe Coffee Day, Titan Eye Plus Outlets, Louise Philippe, Arrow, Raymond, Puma, Nike, Printo, YLG Salons etc.

Buy Titan gift card, and get Adidas gift hamper!

Titan – the very word spells magic. Who hasn’t seen those marvelous Titan Watches commercials with our very own Amir Khan? Or enjoyed the classy music that accompanies these commercials? Somehow, the very name of Titan conjures up images of sheer elegance, of mind-blowing style and gloriously beautiful watches. The first thing that people put on in the morning is usually their wristwatch. Many of us feel strange to be without our wristwatches. Many of us collect classy wristwatches, with Titan being everyone’s popular choice. That’s why wristwatches have been and will always be the first gift choice for people who want to gift something classy, timeless and elegant. Now, this Diwali, Titan brings you another dhamaka offer – purchase a Titan gift card of Rs. 1000 and above and you get Rs. 315 worth of goods from Adidas!

Who doesn’t know about Adidas, the premier sports destination for millions of people worldwide? Top sportspersons around the world have endorsed Adidas shoes, sportswear and its deodorant and perfume range. Titan’s joint promotion with Adidas brings you the advantage of gifting the best of watches, along with the best of personal products from Adidas for free. Imagine the surprise on the face of your gift recipient, when he or she unwraps your gift to find two things! One would be the beautifully packaged gift card from Titan, and the other would be an unexpected gift hamper from Adidas! Why not delight your friends and family this year by gifting them Titan gift cards? Go Titan, Go Adidas!

Here’s a great Diwali Offer on Peter England gift cards!

Have you heard of Peter England, the premier destination of fashionable casual clothes for men? Have you shopped there yet? If you haven’t, think of the coolest shirts, trousers, jackets and casual-wear and Peter England has them all for you. All official outlets of Peter England welcome the Peter England gift card and E-gift card. This Diwali, consider Peter England gift cards and E-gift cards when you think of gift ideas. Peter England is a great brand, very popular and established over many years, but there’s another reason to opt for Peter England this year! When you purchase a Peter England gift card or E-gift card for Rs. 2000 to Rs. 5000, your gift recipient receives a 5% top-up value, over and above your purchase value. That means if you purchase a Peter England gift card or E-gift card of Rs. 2000, your gift recipient receives a card value of Rs. 2100.

There’s more – for purchases above Rs. 5001, your gift recipient receives a 10% top-up. That means that when you purchase a Peter England gift card or E-gift card for Rs. 6000, your gift recipient can enjoy a gift card value of Rs. 6600. The offer is valid only till the 16th of November, with the cards redeemable at all official Peter England stores. Hurry, what are you waiting for? If you’ve been waiting to get your son a new wardrobe in preparation for his new job, this is the way to do it! Get him a Peter England gift card and let your son enjoy the top-up! After all, Diwali is a festival of excess in everything – food, color, joy, lights and love. Why not money? Enjoy more value for what you pay!