admin, Author at Woohoo Gifting Blog

Oorja 2017

Oorja, Qwikcilver’s annual sports event, witnessed a brilliant display of talent, dedication and unparalleled enthusiasm.

Though the main event was a day long there were a series of matches held a few days prior, all of it building-up to the finale.

The desire to not just bring home the trophy but to also put in one’s best was so great that practice sessions were held in full vigour pre / post work and on weekends.

The QCians (yes, that’s what the Qwikcilver / QC folks are called) from across functions were divided into four teams – Red Hawks, Blue Panthers, Flaming Tigers and Green Tornadoes.

Each of the teams participated in various sporting events ranging from football, cricket, badminton, throw-ball, volleyball, chess, table tennis, carom to relay and other medley events.

The day drew to a close with the Red Hawks emerging as the winning team.

But even though the QCians were divided by their teams they were united in spirit. As Shankar Balan, President at Qwikcilver, rightly puts it, “The tempo, the buzz, the sportsmanship, the competitive spirit, the celebration and camaraderie in success and the magnanimity in defeat, came through so very clearly indeed.”

Business Schools Go Woohoo !

It was a wholesome Woohoo experience for the alumni of two Business Schools of India – IIM Calcutta and XLRI.

On February 12^th, the alumni of these two leading Business Schools organised a Sports Competition in Bangalore as an extension of the same Annual Sports Event that takes place at the campus.

Alumni of the two Business Schools participated in games that were evenly contested.

Gruelling contests were seen in Cricket, Football, Badminton, Table Tennis, Basketball and Throwball. In addition, a Corporate Quiz was held between the two competing Schools. As was to be expected, when teams from these two B-Schools competed, the games were played in a highly charged atmosphere. The teams played to their best – with the players coming together on a Sunday weekend to put their skills to test.

Over a hundred alumni and their families from these Business schools descended on the venue throughout the day. With a blend of high competition, with the joy and vibrancy of Sports.

Woohoo Experience!

Brand Woohoo engaged as Gift Card Partner with this audience of IIMC & XLRI Alumni.

To add to their competitive spirit, all the attending players were pleasantly surprised to receive a specially crafted Woohoo Gift Card Package, right at the time of their entry at the Venue.

The Experience package included a Woohoo Gift Card that could be used by the recipient for Gift Cards of over 150 leading brands of their choice from Woohoo.in or the Woohoo Mobile App.

In addition, the players also received a Gifting Experience created specially by Qwikcilver. For this experience, the Qwikcilver team ideated on various options and exclusively partnered with India’s leading and popular book lending Library Chain – JUST BOOKS.

This unique Just Books Gift Card experience enables the recipients to avail a smooth and seamless service at any Just Books Library of their choice across India.

The winners of the various trophies for each game were also presented with Woohoo powered Gift Card Experiences.

This included Shopping Experiences across a mix of India’s leading aspirational and lifestyle brands via Gift Cards from Peter England, Marks & Spencer, Lifestyle, Croma and Louis Philippe.

The attendees at these games included CEOs, CXOs, and Business Managers from leading brands, organisations and start-ups across India, including Accenture, Microland, Wipro, Tata group, Birla Group, Infosys, IBM, Deloitte, Amazon among others.

All-in-all it was a fun-filled day for the attendees and their families who got to experience the delight of receiving Woohoo Experiences along with the exciting games.

Always Forget an Important Occasion? Not anymore!

Do you find yourself somehow forgetting people’s birthdays, anniversaries etc on D-Day? (I’m guilty of it myself!) Or, perhaps, you’re someone who likes to have things planned well in advance and have gifts delivered as per the plan on those specific dates? Woohoo’s “scheduled gifting” option now allows you to have your wishes and E-Gift Cards delivered to your loved ones exactly when they need to be delivered, be it Valentine’s Day, Diwali or other such occasions.

That’s right! You can now select the specific date on which you want the E-Gift Cards to be delivered. This feature does ease the pressure of having to “remember” to send it on time for the occasion or, worse still, remembering it days after the event has passed.

Never be guilty of forgetting another important occasion again!

scheduled gifting, gifting, gift cards

Valentine’s Day Gifts to Sweep your Loved Ones off their Feet

Cakes, flowers and everything nice – we’ve got it all covered to help you make this Valentine’s Day a memorable one for you and your special someone.

valentine's Day gifts, Valentine's Day, gift cards for Valentine's Day

With “pampering” your loved one being a priority, Woohoo has launched a range of Valentine’s special gift cards that are sure to sweep your loved ones off their feet once again.

If a spa date is what you’re planning or a candle-light dinner or coffee date or a shopping spree you intend to gift your loved one, or if you’d rather let them take the pick, a Woohoo e-gift card makes it all possible. With a Woohoo e-gift card your loved one can choose from brands of their choice across apparels, restaurants, spa / salons and the like. So the options are umpteen to spoil them for choices.

That’s not just it! You can even personalize the e-gift cards with pictures of the two of you, voice notes and text messages. All this delivered via Whatsapp, SMS or email.

And to add to the celebration of that warm-fuzzy feeling of being in love you can choose from the choices of cakes and bouquets of flowers that are sure to make them feel extra special.

Note: The first image is from powellong.com. Copyright vests with respective copyright holders.

Valentine’s Day gifts for that special someone

With Valentine’s Day just round the corner and the atmosphere abuzz with all things red and pink, you would love to let that special someone know how much he or she means to you. But the hunt for the perfect Valentine’s Day gifts could be quite a challenge because, surely, your loved one deserves nothing but the “best”.

So what could make the best Valentine’s Day gifts?

Chocolates, roses, soft toys, perfumes, jewellery sets…ah! You’ve done it all! Why not gift something that’s unique and create memories you both will cherish for a lifetime? Well, that’s exactly what you’re looking for, right? Be it gifts for him or her, we’ve got some good valentine gift ideas right here!

A hamper full of surprises

Imagine we tell you that it’s possible to surprise your loved one that morning with the entire day’s plan, that you’ve so lovingly chalked out, literally on the cards? Too good to be true? With Woohoo, this is just as good as it is true!

Here’s what you do:

Hop on to Woohoo.in and browse through a range of gift cards across different categories that you would like to select to create the gift cards hamper for your loved one.

If a nice coffee and brunch date is how you plan to start your Valentine’s Day with your loved one, you could choose to pick a Costa Coffee gift card.

Heading for a movie next? Pick a PVR cinemas gift card.

For the lunch date, you could choose gift cards from Mainland China, Oh! Calcutta, Spaghetti Kitchen and the like, depending on your loved one’s choice of cuisine.

If spending some quality time going shopping together is part of your plan, you could select gift cards from Shopper’s Stop, Lifestyle, Marks & Spencer, Westside and more. If online shopping is what is preferred, you could choose from Amazon or Myntra gift cards.

And before you wrap up that perfect day with an exquisite dinner experience, you could choose to unwind with your loved one at a spa or salon, with gift cards from the Four Fountains Spa or Lakme salon.

Is there more?

Yes! You could chose to have all of this personalized and delivered to your loved one’s mobile in an instant. With the Woohoo app, you could send your loved one an e-gift card that could be used across all of this without having to carry the physical gift cards. You could also add a photograph of the two of you, record a voice message and put it in text and have all of this delivered in a matter of seconds, directly from your mobile to theirs, via Whatsapp, SMS or email.

Now, that’s the perfect Valentine’s Day gifts planning that you’ve handled like a pro! Isn’t that impressive?

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

Gift card co Qwikcilver plans expansion to Russia and SE Asia

As appeared in The Economic Times on 27 January 2017 by Payal Ganguly

Gift card solutions provider Qwikcilver is planning to expand to Russia and Southeast Asia, hoping to leverage its investor network to tap into the new markets. The company had in July last year raised Rs 67 crore from investors led by Sistema Asia Fund, the proprietary fund of Russian conglomerate Sistema.

“We are backed by the board now to venture outside of India and have inbound interest from retail players for the Russian market. We are also looking to set up a subsidiary in Singapore for our expansion in Southeast Asia,” said Qwikcilver cofounder TP Pratap.

Gift card co Qwikcilver plans expansion to Russia and SE Asia
The Singapore subsidiary, to be helmed by Sadiq Ahamed, vice-president at Qwikcilver, will be managed by the Indian team.

The company already has a presence in West Asia and has tie-ups with online electronics retailer Sharaf DG, franchisee businesses of Al Futtaim group, Lulu chain of malls and others across Gulf Cooperation Council countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar. It is headed by Shankar Balan, president for processing business.

“Our Europe market strategy will be different as we will be working with IT service partners and offering our software-as-a-service product to retailers as a bundled offering. This includes closed and semi-closed loop wallets and payment platform,” said Pratap.

The company has also tied up with a US-based point-of-sale provider, which, it said, has a large client base in retail stores across West Asia.

Qwikcilver, which is targetting a gross merchandise value of Rs 4,000 crore for its gift card processing business for 2016-17, pegs contribution from its overseas sales to be 25% of its total business over the next three years. The processing business unit currently contributes 75% of revenue and is used by retail enterprises such as Shoppers Stop.

The company, which raised Rs 63 crore in a previous funding round led by Amazon India, powers the Amazon Pay Balance tool on Amazon India’s website and processes the transactions at the back-end as the ecommerce player does not ha ve a prepaid payment or PPI instrument licence from the Reserve Bank of India to run its own wallet.

The company has started retailing its gift cards with on-demand grocery delivery company Grofers and claims the lead in prepaid card market.

Get Rewarded for Getting Creative with #WoohooMyArt

How it works

We at Woohoo want your gifts to express not just your love but your uniqueness and creativity as well. And what better way to showcase your skill and talent than to let it spill over on the gifts you send your near and dear ones. Create and upload your designs on our Facebook or Instagram pages. The 5 best designs every month will be selected and showcased on woohoo.in and the Woohoo App. These designs can be used as templates by the whole Woohoo community for sending E-Gift Cards. What’s more?? The creators of the selected templates will receive special gifts from Woohoo every time their template is used. Create, innovate and spread joy the Woohoo way with #WoohooMyArt.

Rules

A new occasion or gifting theme will be announced by Woohoo periodically.
Create and share designs for these themes on our Facebook or Instagram.
Remember, share only designs that you have created yourself. Do not share free or paid designs from the web or any other source.

Submission

Share your designs with us on Facebook or Instagram.
Winners will be informed about their designs being available for usage as templates on woohoo.in and Woohoo App.
Selected designs are displayed on woohoo.in/woohoomyart for the running theme, along with the popularity.

Rewards

When your design is used 20 times, you receive Rs.100 worth Woohoo loyalty points.
When your design is used 50 times, you receive Rs.300 worth Woohoo loyalty points.
The most popular design at the end of the period, as displayed on the leaderboard will receive a bumper prize.

World’s First Interactive Birthday Gift Card

Birthday gift cards are now more interactive, thanks to the Woohoo app!

Woohoo has launched the world’s 1st interactive birthday gift card on the mobile. This new template offered on the Woohoo app, adds to the birthday feel. It requires the recipient of the birthday gift card to blow on the candle that appears on their mobile screen. Once they blow the candle out, the gift card appears! This interactive template can be shared with your loved ones as a personalised birthday greeting, without necessarily adding monetary value to it.

For those who would like to gift something along with the birthday wishes, you are more than welcome to add the denomination of your choice. The same can be used by the recipient to dine, enjoy a spa experience, go on a trip or shop from their favourite brands.

And, if you are looking for special and quirky ways to wish Happy Birthday to your dear ones, here are some funny birthday wishes for you.

So go ahead, send them to your loved ones to add another surprise element to their birthday today!

Changing the Way the World Gifts

It is that time of the year. Again. To make resolutions. And to ensure that the resolutions taken earlier are close to execution.

We collectively look forward to a New Year with renewed hope and excitement.

There would surely be freshly baked jokes on social media that nothing is going to change – as it is the same Job, the same Boss, the same colleague, the same market, the same challenges, the same complexities..…

But it is still a New Year!

Time does not have a holiday break. Our dreams don’t have an expiry date. Our dreams continue to be cherished and nurtured. Circumstances shall conspire to help in their accomplishment.

Life, as it happens, has no pause button.

This year has had its share of crests and troughs. Having said that, we shall save only the memories that brought a twinkle to our eyes and mind; not those that added wrinkles to our faces!

At times, we get asked as to what we do. We do lots of exciting and pioneering work. All towards one common agenda.

In a nutshell, we do EVERYTHING GIFT CARDS.

We enable large enterprises, transnational brands & startups to launch and manage unique & innovative consumer outreach programs. Via our robust, multi-tenanted Technology Product Suite for Stored Value Prepaid & Gift Cards.

In 2016, we drove Gift Card category innovations across 700+ enterprises in 500+cities in 6 different countries. This translates to 2+ Gift Cards being transacted every second through the Year on our Qwikcilver SaaS Platform.

As we see it, this in only the beginning.

We now take fresh guard at the wicket; padded up to head onto new frontiers. With new initiatives lined up.

During our long voyage in the market, we have had the joy to have interactions and advice from many of our customers and doyens of Industry. One specific anecdotal tale did resonate soundly and also helped in reminding us and steering our own course : After failing to scale Mount Everest twice, Edmund Hillary amazingly stated : I will come again and conquer you because as a mountain, you cannot grow, but as a human, I can!

And what Edmund Hillary did go on to achieve with this positive attitude is now part of human fortitude and folklore.

In 2016, the Gift Card Industry scaled up across India significantly with strong growth reported across consumption segments. This recent article in the Economic Times did reflect it : Gift Card Industry Growth.

This rapid adoption of Gift Cards has been achieved by the sincere efforts of the brand owners in scaling their Gift Card programs during the key seasons among their customers in innovative modes of merchandising at points of sale.

Increased consumer adoption of Gift Cards is being witnessed – as the smartest way to Gift to friends and family for various festival gifting occasions

In 2016, we scaled up Woohoo – as it got adopted as the Most Powerful Gifting Platform for Corporates, Enterprises, marketplaces and consumers.

Woohoo launched India’s First Secondary Gift Card marketplace – that was also reportedly the World’s First Fully Integrated Secondary Gift Card Marketplace. This helped to drive a new base of consumers onto the growing category of Gift Card users in India.

The times ahead will certainly not be the same again. For us as a company and also for each of us as individuals in our official and personal lives.

In the distant past of my old childhood, the New Year meant a quiet evening with my close family. When we used to make all that we needed. The food was cooked at home. My Late Mother used to cook our Malayali staple food of Appam, Stew, Fish curry, Ulli Sambar, Theeyal, Unniappam, Payasam among other things. She would even bake a special cake for us on New Years Eve.

And we children would relish it, even if my younger sibling would crib about the boringness of it. In those days in the 80s, we did not have the options to place New Year orders via Homedelivery from the neighbourhood restaurants. I still relish those yummy delights cooked at my home.

And today, as a parent myself, I have no say in the choice of clothes by my two little children. In fact, my children even go on to choose the brand and model of automobile that I am allowed to purchase and drive!

For the New Year, I will even get a piece of chocolate from my 6 year old daughter. If I behave well today. As going to be judged & decided by her.

Best Wishes for a Warm and digitally Gifted Prosperous New Year 2017!

(One resolution of mine was that I would Post atleast once on LinkedIn. So hope this qualifies as one and I tick off my list for the Year !)

Author: Pratap TP (CMO, Qwikcilver Solutions Pvt Ltd)

New year gift ideas for your loved ones

As we near the end of a year and prepare to welcome the new year – a year full of hope, excitement and all the good things life can bring us – our hearts yearn to express gratitude to those special people who make our lives worth living. With a plethora of options to select from, what do you choose to gift your loved ones to thank them for having stood by you in the year that was and to usher in the new year? Here are a few new year gift ideas that might help you in making your gifts more meaningful.

This year, take the gifting experience a notch higher. With every aspect of our lives moving at lightning speed with the updates in technology, shouldn’t our gifting experiences too? Instead of tiring yourself walking the aisles of department stores, you now have the power of gifting fabulous products and experiences right from the comfort of your home. From apparel to jewellery, books and electronics, fine dining, movie and spa experiences, online gift-cards stores like Woohoo.in have the perfect new year gift ideas for all. By sending a gift card, you are also giving your loved ones the power of choice – a choice to select the gift as per his own taste and convenience.

Your loved ones will not just appreciate the fact that they could choose from a wide range of products and experiences across brands like Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Amazon, Croma, PVR, Four Fountains Spa, Mainland China and the like, they will also thank you for your thoughtfulness as they take advantage of the numerous year-end sales and offers that are running across various stores.

Besides the range of gifts, endless choice for the recipients and exciting offers, think of the personalization you can bring to your gifts. A gift-wrapped gift card or ornate gift voucher from India’s most favorite brands, with a personalized message, will surely be an instant hit among your loved ones. And if you’d like to make it more personal, you could choose to send an e-gift card via the Woohoo app. Selfies, images from your gallery, voice notes and text messages – all of this beautifully wrapped up in an electronic gift card delivered instantly on their mobiles. The sentiments contained in the gift will always be a click away on their phones, while the monetary aspect can be used by them to treat themselves to a great start to the new year. What better way to light up your loved ones’ lives and show them how much they mean to you this new year? If you liked these ideas, you can start your new year gifting right away!

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