Egift Voucher 101

What exactly is an egift voucher?

In essence, an egift voucher is a prepaid store-of-value digital wallet typically provided by a service provider or company to be used as a substitute for cash for transactions within specific online platforms and physical touchpoints.

Simply put, an egift voucher functions and seems much like a debit card from your bank, only it comes preloaded with evalue. You can subsequently use the prepaid funds, the egift voucher’s receiver, to make various authorized online or in-person retail store purchases.

It’s vital to remember that the money loaded onto the egift voucher cannot be withdrawn; instead, you can make purchases using the evoucher on a mobile or ecommerce site.

What is the role of an egift voucher?

Generally speaking, egift vouchers are a form of payment used at authorized online retailers. The egift voucher is loaded with money or is already loaded with cash that you or the egift voucher recipient may use as a payment alternative on specific ecommerce platforms and physical service points.

Surprisingly, egift vouchers are a very simple and standard tool for customers to spend locally, across borders or send value to friends and family, they are increasingly being offered by brands and retailers as a complementary and future proof payment alternative

Different egift voucher types

There are basically two different kinds of egift vouchers: physical and digital (e-egift vouchers), and each has pros and cons.

On a larger scale, however, you can divide egift vouchers into three groups based on their nature.

1. According to Acceptance

• Open Loop (or network): These egift vouchers are generally accepted because they are typically linked to a specific network, such as Visa or American Express. As a result, it suggests you can use these egift vouchers anywhere that takes the brand’s egift vouchers.
• Closed Loop: These branded egift vouchers are only accepted in a limited number of physical or online retailers or used for a small number of specific brands.

 2. According to the ability to reload

• Reloadable: These egift vouchers can be refilled with cash until they expire.
• Non-reloadable: Egift vouchers like this can only be loaded once. They may however be single redemption or multiple redemption

 3. Considering the Issuer

• Credit card businesses and banks: Egift vouchers issued by credit card companies and banks are often open loops and may have administrative fees. The egift voucher, which will undoubtedly contain an expiration date, can be electronically authorized. Usually, you can choose whether or not you want it reloadable.
• Brands/individual business: Egift vouchers are typically a way for brands and respective business owners to incentivize consumer behaviours and/or ease payment bottlenecks

How do egift vouchers make gift-giving simple?

Instead of buying anything for a friend or family member and running the chance of purchasing the wrong thing, one can offer them an egift voucher to the retailer that issued the evoucher, allowing them to buy whatever they want.

How does redeeming your egift voucher work?

Redeeming a egift voucher means using it to make purchases from a physical or online store.

There are many ways to accomplish it, depending on why you want to use a egift voucher.

What are the different ways to redeem an egift voucher?

1. Redeeming from a physical service points?

For instance, A egift voucher brand operates physical stores and provides egift vouchers or certificates (both the same). It implies that if you have their egift voucher, you can visit the store, shop for what the card can purchase, and then pay with it in cash. For instance, Carrefour has physical stores and offers gift vouchers or egift vouchers (they are identical). This means that if you have a Carrefour egift voucher, you are able to visit their stores and buy what your card will allow you to purchase and then use it to pay as an alternative to cash

2. Online redeeming

You can redeem your egift vouchers online. Log into the website or app you want to use for redemption. Visit the option to redeem egift vouchers. Enter the egift voucher pin in the designated area, followed by the desired purchase amount. You then click “Redeem” to finish. For online shops or applications, you can employ this technique. A few examples are Google Play Store, iTunes, and other retailers with apps that allow egift vouchers to be used online.

In Summary

The large-scale uncertainty and disruption that has followed the pandemic era has been a never-before opportunity for traditional businesses to reflect, review and reinvent the way they look at how they can serve their consumers better, faster and more efficiently and effectively than ever before.

For us at Sochitel, having always prided ourselves on being the leading partner for digital access in and out of Africa, it has been an opportunity and a privilege to work with, enable and empower our merchant and corporate partners on the continent to reach a global audience and make their consumers’ lives better with a secure, affordable and convenient payment alternative – the eGift voucher. We recently established a service partnership with Africa’s foremost ecommerce marketplace, the Jumia Group and several regional merchants and service providers in Nigeria and Kenya who are making big impact to the communities they serve.

Our collaboration with Boss Revolution continues to grow from strength to strength, and we have been privileged to forge exclusive service partnerships with some of the leading merchants and service providers across the USA and LATAM markets, with many more service partnerships slated to come to life over the near future.

Indeed, adversity has truly made us dig deeper and discover newer levels of innovation and enterprise that has helped us unearth some great new opportunities and add several leading industry names to our catalogue of customers and merchant partners.

If you would like to know more and consider how we can digitally take your business globally or bring a bouquet of world wide digital products right to your doorstep, please click here and we’ll be in touch.