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Italy Uncorked
The Milan-based company identified an untapped opportunity in retail gifting, launching its first gift card in 2006. Two years later, Epipoli debuted its gift card mall platform, Gift Card Corner, which has ex- panded to thousands of stores
in Italy—including many of the country’s premier retailers—and offers gift cards for top interna- tional and Italian brands. Today, Epipoli controls 95 percent of
the Italian prepaid gifting market, managing more than 200 gift card
programs, according to company CEO Gaetano Giannetto. He says there’s plenty of opportunity to reach more consumers. “We moved from 20,000 cards sold annually
a few years ago, to 1.5 million in 2014. But our goal is 100 million a few years from now,” he says.
Much of that potential lies in spreading awareness among consumers, many of whom re- main unfamiliar with the gift card concept, he adds. A recent
study by Inside Partners found that 80 percent of Italian consumers aren’t aware of gift cards, but those who’d purchased cards were highly likely to do so again. “The early adopters are buying four or five gift cards a year, but the average consumer still isn’t sure what the product is or its benefits,” he says. “Our mission is to educate.”
Abundant Opportunities
Over the past few years, several other varieties of Italian prepaid
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