It is usually a common practice for gift receivers to dislike some gifts – sometimes all, forcing them to be abandoned or given away. SureGifts.com.ng is the first gift card company in Nigeria. According to co-founder Adeoye Ojo, the process involved in using the platform is straightforward – a customer visits the website, browses through available merchants and decides the value of a gift card to purchase.
It is added to the cart, method of delivery is selected and other details are provided, including payment. This is the latest option that people giving gifts now have to ensure that the recipients get what they really want.
Ojo told AFKInsider that he and the other SureGifts co-founders — who were at that time co-workers at JUMIA Nigeria, one of the two major e-commerce platforms in the country, noticed behaviors that suggested gifting.
Latching Onto Trends
“[Olaoluwa Samuel-Biyi], [Babafemi Femi] and I worked a lot with data when we were at JUMIA and noticed a pattern in customer behavior that tended towards gifting such as men buying lots of female items and women buying male items etc. [We] figured we should create a service focused on gifting,” Ojo explained.
“But instead of having merchandise on display, we decided it’s best to partner with various merchants and sell their gift cards there by making the gifting process richer for the sender and the recipient, and that was what led to SureGifts.”
A gift card is a restricted monetary equivalent that is issued by retailers as a non-monetary gift. Gift cards are very popular in developed countries. In the U.S., close to two-thirds of all consumers have a least bought one gift card, according to Gift Card Granny. By 2006, over 80 percent of retailers in Canada had embraced gift cards.
Still, when the co-founders decided to launch their platform, gift cards were still a strange concept in Nigeria. Ojo said they decided to go ahead with the launch anyway because they were convinced that the market was ready for the service.
“We knew we could make it happen,” Ojo said.
He said the level of acceptance is growing as most customers refer friends and families to use SureGifts.
“Several companies now prefer using SureGifts to power staff rewards and we are working hard to improve popularity so that more Nigerians can know about the service — so gifting can be simpler but richer for them,” he said.
Connecting Gift Givers
SureGifts currently retails gift cards for brands and merchants in Nigeria. The platform offers Gift Specialist Service and recently launched Gift Registry which is ideal for several occasions such as weddings, birthdays and house warmings.
The customers that are buying gift cards – the Suregifters — Ojo said, have a simple desire – they just want to please their loved ones, and they want to do this in the most thoughtful way and with the least hassle.
“Suregifters send gift cards and compose special messages that convey all the emotion intended from the comfort of their homes or offices,” Ojo added.
One of the major achievements of the platform is its ability to help Nigerians living abroad be part of the celebrations of their loved ones in Nigeria.
“We’re always especially charmed when a customer abroad, who would have otherwise missed an opportunity to share any love, stumbles on SureGifts and shops. These customers usually embed the most touching messages,” Ojo said.
“A customer in Southern Africa thanked ‘easy technology’ in her note to wish her boyfriend in Nigeria happy birthday. These experiences keep us going.”
Educating Nigerians on Gift Cards
The sail hasn’t been entirely smooth for the company. Ojo said they are battling with a number of challenges, one of which is predictably that of educating Nigerian customers on gift cards.
“It is a job that needs a lot of resources. Another challenge is with having an easier way to redeem gift cards at merchant stores. That will be a thing of the past once we can integrate with existing POS devices,” he said. “Also, there are a few potential merchants who just do not understand the concept, are comfortable with the status quo and averse to novel concepts like gift cards.”
The platform now has 24 merchants live on the site. Four of them are online stores that deliver nationwide.
“More will be going live soon, we are actively trying to increase merchant base so we can add more value for our customers and their recipients,” Ojo said.
The merchants that do online deliveries are making it possible for the platform to serve regions outside its Lagos base.
“We have online stores that deliver nationwide (Jumia, Fashpa, Heels and Ella Matthew are currently in integration stage); a gift card for any of these stores can be redeemed from anywhere in Nigeria,” he added. “We already signed key merchants in some states and Abuja to localize the experience and they will be available as soon as the POS integration is done.”
Even though the company is recording major successes, he said they are not relenting; instead, they are seeking to improve customer experience on the platform. Luckily, he said, the market “has been favorable,” in response to the high goals which the team set.