As appeared in The New Indian Express on 14 September 2017.
There is some celebration every other day – festivals, birthdays, office parties and the list goes on. Last week was Onam and Pooja is right around the corner. Not surprisingly, there are a number of gift choices for loved ones too. But, despite the overwhelming availability, the old dilemma exists: What should I gift a person? In one of their research surveys, Qwikcilver had discovered that most gift purchases happen only three days before the event. Foreseeing this, Qwikcilver, powering 90 per cent of the gift cards in the country, has developed a superstore for gift cards called Woohoo. “Through this innovation, the person receiving the card has the freedom of choice,” said co-founder Pratap T P.
Customised gifting
Through Woohoo, which functions as a mobile application and a website, one can purchase gift cards to as many as 150 brands that have partnered with the company. It was launched in 2015 and provides options for planned and customised value gifting. The app securely stores the gift cards and gives regular reminders regarding the expiry.
In the latest group gifting feature, released a month ago, people can pool in the amount and gift the card to the recipient. This eliminates the hassle of coordinating and collecting individual amounts. In addition, it has a secondary market trading platform where one can buy and sell gift cards. “This is the first and only platform in the country that provides such an option,” said Pratap.
Taking on Malayalees on social media
Targeting the Malayali audience for Onam, the developers of Woohoo did a social media campaign on all the popular platforms. “The campaign was a humorous take on gifting, endorsing the celebrities in the Malayalam movie industry,” said Pratap. “We were trying to make a presence on social media,” he added
Gifting culture
Like the greeting card industry, which helped develop the birthday and anniversary culture in the country, Woohoo’s creators also expected to enhance the gifting culture among people. “It is instant gratification. But at the end of the day, we are just trying to improve human engagements through Woohoo,” said Pratap.
