Problem: Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s customers have experienced difficulty in not only using their gift cards online and instore, but also purchasing the gift cards. The issues resolved around the platform on which gift cards are built and to a lesser extent the fraud challenges that Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s do to thwart fraudsters was ultimately hurting good customers.
Hypothesis: Instead of building an entirely new gift card platform and experience from scratch, it might be more cost effective and successful to partner with a 3rd Party Gift Card Provider who could host the gift card site, allow our customers to purchase gift cards, use more sophisticated fraud measures and then deliver both physical and online gift cards at a more rapid speed.
Solution: I immediately set out on researching the gift card industry and our competitors. I found that many, if not all, of our competitors use a 3rd Party Vendor to enhance their gift card experience. I then set up meetings and met with 7 of the leading GC (gift card) vendors in the industry and had them pitch me their product. Working with merch, marketing, dev and finance, we were able to decide on a vendor and planned our move to an entirely new platform.
Results: The project is being implemented now and will prove to be a huge success. We expect an increase in revenue across both brands to increase by $30 million dollars a year until ultimately plateauing at around a $100 million dollar a year business.
Gift Card Gift Giver Experience
Gift Card Gift Recipient Problem
