Takeshi Hirano
Tokyo-based startup Giftee is a service that allows you to send a gift voucher over the internet. For instance, when you receive such a voucher from someone, you could use it to redeem a complimentary cup of coffee at a partnering coffee shop, for example. For gift givers, the service gives you a great way to send a small token of thanks or appreciation to someone lives far away from you.
However for the gift receiver, the process of redeeming the coupon is not always easy. But the startup has just taken a step to remedy this.
Giftee announced the launch of a new service today which delivers your gift straight to your friend on your behalf. For gift givers, you can choose a present from among 60 products across 20 brands, such as Japanese teas, sweets, flower arrangements, and accessories. When you complete the purchase, you will receive a specific URL from the service. Subsequently, you can send that URL to the recipient over e-mail, by a Facebook private message, or via the Line messaging app. You never need to know the receiver’s mailing address because they will be prompted to enter it after receiving the URL from you.
For those receiving gifts, when you click the URL in a message from a sender, you’ll be requested to accept the gift and enter your own address. Using his dashboard, the sender can see if you have already read the notification e-mail.
Giftee’s co-founder/CEO Mutsumi Ohta explained what prompted him to launch this new service.
I learned one of our partnered merchants was selling very cute cookies. But the confectionery shop is located [relatively] far from any railway stations, so the coupon redemption rate was pretty bad. But the startup has an e-commerce channel and can ship their products from online orders. This means they are capable of delivering their products upon getting gift order requests. We started testing it last fall, and learned many people have repeatedly used the new service.
Mr. Ota thinks the service’s original concept to deliver small ‘thank yous’ over social media has been well understood among its users since the initial launch back in 2011. The only problem with this new delivery service is that it’s bit expensive to ship. But the startup is now trying to overcome this using a reasonably priced mail delivery service.
If you have some products that might be suitable for such a gifts, the startup welcomes your application to be a partner merchant. But they are careful about partner selection selection and there are a range of reasons why a product might not make the cut.
Yukari Mitsuhashi
Junya Mori
Rick Martin
