Technology

Nigerian firm SureGifts bets on Internet reach to change Africa’s gifting culture

Ade

Sure Gifts co-founder Adeoye Ojo during an interview. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA

Over the past few years, a lot has changed in the way businesses operate, and how clients make purchases around the globe.

Gone are the days when people had to physically visit shops to buy items as enterprises now thrive in online spaces thanks to the Internet and the rise of social media platforms.

The Internet has become a great enabler in new business development and innovators are riding on it to come up with products that help make life easier, in the process making a pretty penny for themselves.

SureGifts, a Nigerian-based e-commerce firm, is a unique platform that is riding on this wave with the aim of changing the culture of gifting in the pan-African setting.

The firm has now set up shop in Nairobi in the hope of getting Kenyans to embrace a “new” method of buying presents -that enables people to pick the gifts they prefer.

Adeoye Ojo, SureGifts co-founder, says the portal is meant to make gifting easier where a voucher holder can redeem the coupon in a variety of stores, which is different from currently available coupons that are specific to a single brand/outlet.

The gift coupons are presented to the recipients in three formats-emails, short-messaging services (SMS) and in physical format.

For the digital options, gift recipients use the unique number code that comes with the coupon to claim the voucher. The company has systems in place that ensure that codes can be deactivated in case they are compromised.

“We want you to get excited when you receive a gift voucher instead of the usual physical gifts that most people end up not using. SureGifts has started changing the culture of gifting in Nigeria, and so far so good,” he said.

The gift vouchers are customised to senders’ tastes, with the option of a video message being attached to the vouchers sent through the email or directly to the phone.

The physical card can include a printed message on the top. Since setting base in Kenya in October, SureGifts has endeared itself to the corporate sector, but the company is planning on reaching out to individual buyers later on.

SureGifts has already partnered with major merchants in the local market where recipients of gifts vouchers can redeem them for various products or services.

The merchants currently in their books include Nakumatt Holdings, Imax, the Wine Shop, Adele Dejak-a jewelry brand, Revitalise Spa, Cake City and Vivo Kenya, among others.

SureGifts makes money from the merchants’ end, where they receive a percentage of the value of the sales.People can get gift vouchers of any amount, but specific stores have the minimum value that can be redeemed.

The company is currently in talks with a number of utility companies and the co-founders anticipate that before the end of the month people will be in a position to buy electricity tokens and pay water bills using their gift vouchers.

The portal already enables people to redeem vouchers for Airtel and Safaricom airtime.

Angel investors

Sure Gift’s three founders are all former employees of Jumia Nigeria, where they handled business intelligence for different departments. They came up with the business idea after noticing a trend where online buyers kept visiting Jumia for unique gifts and sometimes missing them.

The online business began in January 2014 and remains the only firm offering this type of service in the region.

In Nigeria, where it started, the company offers services (customer and employee reward programme) to 250 companies that have subscribed to SureGifts.

The founders originally funded the venture using their personal savings, but entered the Kenyan market with the help of angel investors.

“Kenya is among the most developed retail markets in Africa and coming here makes natural business sense for us because people are exposed- they already buy vouchers and it felt like a place where adoption will be easy. And so far, so good,” said Ojo.

The company currently employs five locals, who are charged with the task of recruiting new merchants and driving the number of users up-especially from the corporate sector.

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