giftmall’s birthday: Wins and challenges through the years

We are turning 13 this year, and as true teenage rebels, we’d like to share the top challenges we've overcome over the years, as well as the wins that have led us to where we are today. The spirit of adventure, discovery and joy is what kept us going all those years, and we want to share some of the stories with you. Enjoy!

Wins that we cherish

We are so proud of our victories and have many, small and large ones, that it could take hours to discuss. So, let’s cover only those that made the biggest impact.

Win 1: Top brands in our catalogue

When we started out in 2013, we signed 10 brands. It was the largest catalogue at the time, with top brands that people loved and used the most.

We grew slowly but surely, adding new market players and offering more to users and clients. Our partnership relations grew with the catalogue, and each new brand added to our confidence.

Win 2: Own storage unit

At the beginning, not every brand understood why they needed to sell their gift cards to us. And to earn clients’ trust, we needed a bigger brand selection. So, Kate, our CEO, decided to approach our prospect partners and offer to buy large volumes of cards to store.

This allowed us to sell gift cards more quickly, as we didn’t need to wait for partners to transfer them. From early on, the tactic of buying gift cards in advance became our competitive advantage and allowed us to build lasting relationships with the brands we cherish to this day.

Win 3: Mobile app launch

We decided to develop and launch a mobile app just on a whim. Turned out, customers actually wanted it. Our users enjoy the simplicity it brings to exchanging gift cards, searching for and downloading them right on their phone. One minute you receive the company gift in the form of a multibrand card, and the next you pay your bill with the brand card at checkout in a physical store.

Win 4: Strong and independent team

It was a long journey for us, but we’re immensely proud of the team that we have. Over the years, we’ve seen how we've grown as a company, and as a team, we’ve improved in quality. We work more efficiently and achieve better results, and we’ve become stronger than ever. The team is capable of covering for one another, supporting everyone and transforming the gift card market at the same time.

Win 5: European markets launch

Despite global crises that began in 2020 and have yet to end, we launched in Poland and then in Spain. Those have been challenging markets that are still teaching us a great deal. Strong competition, exciting prospects and endless room for growth – what more can we ask for?

Challenges that we overcame

Speaking of challenges, we’ve got a handful. But we pushed through and came out on the other side with experience and knowledge that we wouldn’t have otherwise. And what’s the fun in that?

Challenge 1: Send glitches at the beginning

We had a couple of tech glitches during the mass send-outs at the beginning of our work. For example, we agreed with the client that the gift cards would be sent out while the director was delivering his New Year’s speech. For some reason, the system kept looping and sending the same gift cards over and over. Then there were cases when the emails with gift cards didn’t arrive because the system was overloaded.

We turned it into a lesson that eventually became our benefit – send-outs are smooth and on time.

Challenge 2: Scalable tech solutions for clients

At some point, clients began to want more advanced solutions beyond gift cards. ‘How about branding? How about time-sensitive deliveries? Do you do reporting?’ How and when did that happen? We have only just begun selling cards!

But the client wants what he wants. And since all those requests required a strong tech team to develop and manage tools, we hired freelancers. Then an internal team. And now we have three advanced tech solutions that cover our business clients’ needs – giftmall business account, API and white label.

Challenge 3: COVID-19

Global pandemic was a hard challenge for everyone.

Alas, we overcame, learning to work flexibly and in hybrid mode. Turned out, it was only a beginning.

Challenge 4: Full-scale invasion

Then came the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This war shook Europe and the world.

At giftmall, we all got together and got on with our work. Everyone really wanted to do something, to be useful. And then we were back in the office very quickly, and everyone was delighted. It was a challenge, but we coped with it quite well and are still coping to this day.

In spite of every challenge and because of every win, we are here today. giftmall is stronger than ever and ready to deliver more gifting excellence. We would like to thank every employee, client, partner and user who has put their faith in our project and helped us rise. We’re stronger and happier together.

Happy birthday to giftmall.