Wrapp, the leading US mobile social gifting app for celebrating, thanking, surprising and delighting friends and family with free gift cards from top brands, is now available in the UK for download from Appleās App Store or Android Market.
Created for social media and smartphone users, Wrapp makes it fun and easy to give, receive and redeem gift cards using mobile devices or the Web, and allows Facebook friends to contribute to the presents.
āWrapp is a super easy way to remember big and small moments in friendsā lives with gifts of real value,ā said Hjalmar Winbladh, Wrapp co-founder and CEO. āWe think simple acts of kindness like gift giving should be an everyday event ā especially among friends and family.ā
Wrappās charter merchant partners in the UK include:
⢠ASOS ā U.K.ās largest independent online fashion and beauty retailer
⢠Aurora Fashions ā the group behind the respected womenās fashion brands Coast, Oasis and Warehouse; Karen Millen
⢠Caratime ā the world’s premier online luxury jewels and watches e-shop
⢠Clas Ohlson ā home improvement chain with stores in Sweden, Norway, Finland and the UK
⢠Fitness First ā the worldās largest gym and health club group
⢠iSUBSCRiBE ā magazine and newspaper subscription service featuring 2,000 titles
⢠Pizza Express ā the nationās favorite high street restaurant
⢠Rosetta Stone ā the world’s #1 language-learning software
⢠Theater Tokens ā a network of more than 240 venues nationwide.
āWeāve enjoyed good results with Wrapp in Sweden, so being part of Wrappās start in the U.K. was a natural next step,ā said Clas Ohlson U.K. Managing Director Mark Gregory. āWeāve been using Wrapp in Sweden to reward our loyal customers as well as promoting new store openings. Customers enjoy giving their friends free gift cards and they appreciate the convenience of using their phones to redeem them.ā
Gift cards in the U.K. are now a £4.5 billion industry, which has grown 2 percent to 12 percent over the last nine years, and is expected to continue its upward trend into 2012 and beyond, according to the Bracknell-based UK Gift Card & Voucher Association.
āWrapp has come up with a totally new and unique way to use mobile phones and social networking to provide online gifts to customers which can then be redeemed in our stores,ā said Ish Patel, Group Omni-Channel Director at Aurora Fashions. āOne of the things we like best about Wrapp is our brand is being recommended and endorsed to you by your friends, giving the brand the benefit of the power of advocacy from those you trust most.ā
How Wrapp Works
To get started, download the Wrapp mobile app from Appleās App Store or Android Market, or use the web app at www.wrapp.com, and connect the Wrapp app to your Facebook account.
Wrapp will immediately start alerting you about friendsā birthdays and other occasions, and all you have to do to celebrate is choose a free or paid gift card offered by one of your friendās favorite brands ā no strings attached.
The gift you give appears on your friendās Facebook wall, so all of your mutual friends can add on to the present.
To collect a gift card you click on the link sent to you in email, text message (SMS) or on your Facebook wall and automatically download the Wrapp app. When youāre ready to use a gift card, you select the Wallet tab in the app, and the gift card you want to redeem. Then, press the Redeem button, and present the gift card and its barcode displayed on the phoneās screen to the cashier, who will scan the barcode and complete the transaction.
āWith Wrapp, your gift cards are always right there in your pocket when youāre ready to pick out something you really like,ā said Winbladh. āAnyone around the world with friends in the U.K. can now use Wrapp to send real gifts as easily as posting messages on Facebook.ā
Wrapp was started last year by Winbladh and a small team of entrepreneurs in Sweden, including Andreas Ehn, Spotifyās founding chief technology officer; Carl Fritjofsson, strategy advisor to Groupon.se; Aage Reerslev, founder of mobile browser Squace; and Fabian Mansson, former CEO of H&M and Eddie Bauer, who now serves as Wrappās chairman. Winbladh co-founded Sendit, the first mobile Internet company, where he served as CEO, and took it public in 1997, before being acquired by Microsoft. In 2006 Winbladh co-founded Rebtel, now the world’s largest independent mobile VoIP company.
Gift partners participating in Wrappās start in Sweden include the countryās largest sporting goods retailer Stadium, Dixonās nationwide consumer electronics giant Elgiganten, designer underwear brand Bjƶrn Borg, street wear fashion stores WeSC, and household goods chain Cevera among 30 other top Swedish merchants.
Since mid-November when Wrapp began service, more than 150,000 consumers have sent nearly 1 million gift cards in Sweden. Every gift card posted on a recipientās Facebook timeline or wall is seen by approximately 80 percent of their friends. Participating merchants report that sales average at least four times the face value of a free gift card offered on Wrapp.