InComm Moves into E-Gifting with Giftango Acquisition (Jan. 8, 2013)
Jan. 8, 2013
Atlanta-based prepaid distribution and technology provider InComm has acquired Giftango Corp., the Portland, Ore.-headquartered digital gift card fulfillment provider, in a move InComm says is meant to expand the company’s reach into high-volume, e-commerce gift card sales and distribution.
“This acquisition opens doors to new and meaningful distribution channels for InComm merchants and product partners,” said Brooks Smith, president and CEO, InComm. “Giftango is the digital gifting technology behind very large loyalty, incentive and mobile platforms in the U.S. market and has made inroads internationally as well. This also adds proven B2B, e-commerce and promotional toolsets to the portfolio of InComm products.” Founded in 2005, Giftango enables merchants to sell digital gift cards from their own Websites and facilitates fulfillment, customer service and management of gift cards for merchants. Currently, more than 150 brands deliver digital gift cards through Giftango’s network, the company says.
InComm’s foray into digital gift cards comes at a time of growing popularity for the products. A recent report by Mercator Advisory Group predicted retailers would issue 8 million virtual gift cards during the 2012 holiday season, and according to Giftango, some 80 percent of consumers opt for digital gift card delivery over a physical card when given the option. The Giftango acquisition follows InComm’s December purchase of Adility Inc., a platform that enables retailers to activate mobile gift cards at in-store POS devices.
“We wanted to be one of the first in the [virtual gift card] industry to combine with a leader in the prepaid space to create an unparalleled platform in the marketplace,” Giftango CEO David Nelsen tells Paybefore, adding that coming under InComm’s umbrella offers advantages of scale as well. “Some of the challenges a startup would normally face are immediately overcome with InComm, whose server and hardware infrastructure and technological platform are unparalleled.”
Under the deal, terms of which were not disclosed, Giftango will become a wholly owned subsidiary of InComm and will continue to operate out of its Portland headquarters, acting as InComm’s digital gifting arm and a platform for future digital rollouts, according to Nelsen. The deal “is consistent with the expected evolution of the industry,” observes John Grund, a partner with First Annapolis Consulting. “InComm gets access to an established technology solution for digital cards and incremental distribution in the B2B space, while Giftango gets access to an established player in prepaid with the ability to complement InComm’s current distribution model.”
