2021 was a year of significant growth at Giftify. We launched a new website, upgraded our positioning, released a range of green card option, doubled our team, and entered several new markets. With the first quarter of 2022 under our belt, we felt a bit nostalgic about our progress. So we've decided to do a Year-in-Review, sharing some of our favourite moments and highlights.
2021 was a year of significant growth at Giftify. We launched a new website, upgraded our positioning, released a range of green card option, doubled our team, and entered several new markets. With the first quarter of 2022 under our belt, we felt a bit nostalgic about our progress. So we've decided to do a Year-in-Review, sharing some of our favourite moments and highlights.
What's happened, and what's on the Horizon
Read on to get a look behind the scenes of the past year, and a taste of what's coming up
Projects
More involved than the above individual Request Tickets are our Projects: this is where our team of experts shines. Read below for a breakdown of Product's top Projects in 2021
Giftify Card Offering
Across the year, upgrading our card offering was a top priority. To provide our clients with the services they deserve we:
- Launched our Classic, Express, and Next-Day Card Delivery Offering -
- Classic - fully custom designs, with special effects and a variety of materials
- Express - with a 3-week SLA, we deliver a custom CMYK design on standard PVC
- Next-Day - a capsule collection of seasonal and and standard gift cards, ready to serve your last-minute needs
- Giftify Green, our eco-friendly cards made from Paper Board, Recycled PVC and PET-G, and Bio PVC
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Introduced a variety of card envelopes and wallets, which can be custom designed to coordinate with your gift and promo cards
RapidCard Slim and Spark
2021 brought a significant number of upgrades for our Android-based RapidCard Slim Vending Kiosk and RapidCard Spark MPOS:
- An overhaul of alerts and security settings to give our customers greater confidence;
- Upgraded customer journey on the App's touchscreen flow;
- More service languages than ever before: the Slim and Spark now operate in French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Czech, Finnish, German, Polish, Dutch, and Slovak (more available on demand);
- Your customers can now purchase multiple gift cards in a single transaction on the RapidCard Spark;
- We've added a QR code to the vending machine screens for easier customer access to the Terms and Conditions (and fewer questions for your team to answer!);
- We also gave the Giftify App a complete overhaul to match our updated brand guidelines;
- We've also added the possibility to deliver the Slim and Spark customer journey in your shopping centre, retail park, outlet shop, or city centre's branding - including your logo;
- All cards are now loaded using your centre's MVC (Master Virtual Card). You can think of the MVC as a preloaded budget for your card programme: you preload the MVC, and purchases made from the Slim and Spark, as well as the RapidCard Pro, are loaded from the MVC. That means no more Direct Loads - your customers' gift cards are instantly ready to use rather than waiting for the Direct Load transaction to clear;
- Terminal upgrades are now seamless thanks to the addition of LoyaltekTools profiles;
- Whitelisting and autobooting files means that the Giftify App (the software responsible for running your gift card programme purchases) will now launch itself automatically once the Vending Kiosk or Spark MPOS is turned on. Also the app is now located in the MainApp, making access easier for your team and limiting possible mistakes during a relaunch sequence;
- Last but not least, we now offer a Data Collect option - we will continue to refine this during 2022.
RapidCard E-Shop
This project is currently in beta testing with a few shopping centres for quality control purposes. It is, essentially, an online webshop for any participating centre to boost their gift card purchases; as always, the cards can only be used at their dedicated centre. More details will follow with the wider release in 2022.
Giftify Digital Card
Another project started in 2021, and entering in its final stages of initial development now. Once this launch is fully prepared, our gift cards can be tokenised for usage in Apple Pay and Google Pay's digital wallets. We will make further announcements as the project evolves in terms of internal testing and client beta tests.
Extranet Upgrades
Across 2021, we've gathered feedback internally and externally to create a comprehensive plan for updating Giftify's Extranet to match the evolving needs of our clients, as well as our position as a Marketing Technology specialist. Our new extranent service is currently in beta testing, with announcements of beta results and roll-out expected Summer 2022.
Legal Updates
As of January 2022, Giftify became a separate legal entity from Loyaltek (keeping the same VAT and therefore remaining the same business). This nominal change has, of course, meant a significant amount of work for our Legal Team to ensure everything in 2021 aligned with our 2022 planning.
Gift Card Contracts
In September 2021, our Legal, Product, Sales, and Support Teams met to determine the necessary revisions to enhance all our contracts and assure alignment across all facets of our customers' onboarding and usage journeys.
Rental Contracts
RapidCard Vending Kiosks (Slim and Pro)
We have fully updated our contracts to align with our clients' needs, and support our continued growth
RapidCard Spark MPOS
A new rental contract for the RapidCard Spark now replaces the previous simple order sheet, ensuring clarity of the agreement and terms between Giftify and our clients
Legal Opinions
To empower our continued growth in the UK, Poland, and Croatia, we've undergone extensive due diligence to assure our current and potential clients in those regions that we are fully up to date on their expectations and the requirements of their local legislatures.
Marketing Updates
Marketing is a new division of the Product Team, starting its activities in late Q1 2021. Including Marketing inside of the Product Team may at first glance seem odd. We believe that the best way to present our product lines is to have our expert storytellers right there on the ground floor of product development. In fact, our Global Manager of Product, Innovation, and Design (Sacha de Diego Bravo) was the driving voice in the development of Giftify’s current website.
Branding and Content
Creating the new branding and relaunching Giftify was Marketing's main labour of love during 2021, with the launch of the new website a culmination of over 6 months of dedicated focus. Alongside this effort, we also began to build out a social media presence to ensure that we can reach people where they spend their time, and generate a community of clients and people interested in gift cards / martech where we can share our stories. Marketing also creates presentations, documents, and the packaging of all communications you may receive from Giftify as a friend, colleague, prospect, or client.
Website
In September 2021, we formally launched our new website with its improved explanations of our product offering as well as clear contact channels for outreach to our Sales and Support Teams. By the end of 2021 (just 4 months), our new website had reached over 2000 users from 86 countries.
As we move into 2022, Marketing has worked to expand our localisation services to guarantee our website's information is fully available in all Support languages and that our Insights page can serve as a home for Press, Product's Release Notes, and informational content - like this Review.
Third-Party Engagements
In 2021 we attended SIEC in Paris, as well as MAPIC in both Cannes and Milan; we attended so we could learn about the future of retail and get our finger on the pulse of how we can better serve our clients (and even find a few new ones!)
Coming Soon!
Like we've said earlier, many of our projects from 2021 are ongoing, with launch projected for sometime in 2022. So what can you expect to see on the horizon?
an Upgraded Extranet
the RapidCard E-Shop
Digital Gift Cards (being explored)
Release Notes and Press hosted on insights.giftify.me
Quarterly Update emails from Marketing
....and much more
Are you interested in chatting about how Giftify's products can serve your shopping centre, retail park, outlet shop, or city centre?
