'Gift Cards Market In India Has Been Pioneered By Qwikcilver From A Zero Base'

The gift cards market in India is growing and Qwikcilver claims to have captured 90 per cent of the Rs 3,000-crore market. Funded by Helion Ventures, Accel Partners and Amazon, Qwikcilver is arguably the only provider of end-to-end solutions in that space that address all the needs of brands and retailers. Pratap TP, co-founder & CMO at Qwikcilver shares with BW Businessworld some trends in the gift cards business in India, their company's strategy and the way forward. Edited Excerpts:

What is the size of the gift cards market in India? What is your market share? How do you see it grow?
The gift cards market in India has been pioneered by Qwikcilver from a zero base. We are indeed delighted to have scaled this fast growing category to over Rs 3,000 crore annually. Qwikcilver has established and reinforced the prepaid gift cards Qwikcilver network in Indian retail - with close to 90 per cent share of the customer engagements across 100+ power brands in 20 consumption categories. The Qwikcilver network has grown by 300 per cent year-on-year for the last 4 years and currently Qwikcilver manages 50 million gift cards. Our product technology is deployed across more than 500 cities and towns in over 10,000 premium brand stores, e-commerce portals & mobile apps, and points of sale across physical cards, digital cards and mobile-based engagements across card transactions annually in 300+ towns and cities.

What's your unique strategy?
Qwikcilver is the only player on the global arena that operates in a truly integrated manner - across offline and online brands, retailers and corporates. The Woohoo Gift Card has grown over the last one year to be India's most preferred gift card portfolio - with its unique experience available for seamless usage via mobile app in India's leading brand stores and portals. The Woohoo Mobile App is the most powerful mobile gifting app in India today and enables consumers to gift to their friends and family instantly via Whatsapp! This is truly a unique experience that has been widely appreciated by gift card fans across India.

Woohoo Mobile App has launched a unique feature for the first time in Asia this month - where users can save their digital gift cards purchased or received from their friends, family or offices on the Woohoo App! This real time mode of storing is a safe and secure protection of their digital gift cards onto their Woohoo App - and they can use it at their chosen brand stores.

Who is your target customer in India?
We currently have long-term strategic partnerships with more than 150 leading brands and retailers across 25 consumption segments to power and manage their prepaid and gift card portfolio with our robust Qwikcilver product suite. We are closely engaged with over 500 corporates, institutions and channel partners in India via the Woohoo Gifting Platform. Our Woohoo.in gifting site and Woohoo mobile app has a base of over 400,000 users. Our Woohoo target customer is in the SEC A1/A2 with age band of 15-35 years in the top 25 cities of India.

Any plans of going international?
Over the last three years, we have been operating in the Middle East via strategic partnerships with some of the most trusted corporates and brands. We are now working on scaling up this presence with a local presence and a dedicated team in the Middle East to support and expand this fast growing market for Qwikcilver. This would be our first overseas foray outside India. This office will service existing clients as well as work on growing the business in the Middle East region.

What is the trend you see in customers purchasing through currency wallets these days?
Our metrics tracked reflect the preferences of consumers to shop via multiple modes available on Woohoo - through gift cards, mobile currencies, payment gateways, and through loyalty points.

What denominations are the gift cards available in? What's the average value of gift cards in India?
The denominations of gift cards are between Rs 500- Rs 50,000. The average value of gift cards as per FY 2015-2016 is Rs 2,103.

Your business model can be easily replicated. How do plan to stay relevant in this fast competitive market?
This is India's first and only fully integrated gift cards platform that has a Qwikcilver network deployed in a seamless manner for retailers and enterprises to launch and manage various customer engagement programs including gift cards (both digital and mobile), promotional programs, wallets, and food court cards, among others. This model is further enhanced with our consumer adoption via the Woohoo app and Woohoo site. This makes us the only player on the global arena that operates across this entire ecosystem in this manner. We do believe that this product platform network deployed across the top 150 brands of India does provide a competitive differentiator for us for the long term. Our investments into cutting edge technology that are of global benchmark standards would continue to keep our customers and partners abreast of the best-in-class solutions in this segment.