Print
Email
Print Edition StoriesWednesday, September 1, 2010
Tech across New England
CashStar takes the card out of digital gifts
By Mass High Tech staff
Health care industry eyes iPad
MHT's Julie Donnelly: Biotechs lag in social media use
CashStar Inc.
Location: Portland, Maine
Web: www.cashstar.com
Phone: 207-699-5612
Date founded: 2007
Top executive: David Stone, CEO
Industry: Digital gifting and incentives
CashStar wants to take the card out of gift cards. The 37-employee company — named the Gazelle Company of the Year by TechMaine in June — is working to move gift cards into a digital format that not only takes the plastic out of gifting but allows more interactivity and better customer relationships in gifting and in employee and customer incentives. Typically delivered by an e-mail with a barcode that can be read off a printout or off a smart phone or redeemed online, a digital gift allows the giver to more easily personalize the gift, and allows the retailer to establish a closer relationship with the giver and the recipient. CashStar, targeting a $90-billion gift card market, counts The Home Depot, CVS, Travelocity and other major companies as customers for its payment platform.
While gift cards have made their mark in consumer gifting, and have appeared in corporate gifting in the form of employee incentives, CashStar sees a growth opportunity in social media, where members of a site win incentives based on levels of participation. Digital gifting allows the site to offer members more choices of retailers than they could with plastic gift cards, and the incentive can be delivered immediately. The company also sees potential in customer service applications where digital gifting provides options such as immediately sending a gift certificant to an upset customer. A key for the company is giving incentive providers such as employers and social media companies a wide range of retailers to choose from. CashStar hopes to offer 100 brands by the end of the year.
From the top, David Stone: “We’re in the digital age. It’s high time this plastic format moved to the digital world. We pride ourselves on ease of use. It’s an elegant and simple, really rich platform. In the short run we are working to bring on more of the top 20 retailers in North America, while also helping to pave the way for social media and mobile to work.”
Comments
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.
RSS Feeds
