In the summer of 1999 our consumer business, GiveAnything.com, started taking shape as a unique solution for the ever present gift giving quandary: what do I get them? Our patented Universal Gift Card, which can be redeemed directly at over 300 great online stores, was being well received by our customers and even the press.
We began to get calls from companies looking to buy large volumes of gift certificates to use as employee rewards, sales incentives and even customer acquisition tools. The light bulb went off and we decided to learn more about the incentive industry. We attended trade shows, joined the Incentive Marketing Association and Recognition Professionals International and talked to industry veterans about how we could best introduce our unique product into this marketplace.
Realizing that our 16-digit gift certificate number could be redeemed for almost anything, we added retail gift cards and other products and services to our host of redemption options for corporate programs. We then added front-end applications and back-end reporting suites to round out the full-fledged Recognition Management Systems we have today.
Today we run a variety of employee recognition, sales incentive, wellness incentive and customer loyalty programs for Fortune 1000 companies and small businesses alike. Our solutions have won us clients like Verizon Wireless, Nokia, Northrop Grumman, AAA, Cleveland Clinic, Samsung, and Heinz.
Did you know the average markup on traditional rewards merchandise is 30%?