CashStar Unveils Mobile Web Gift Card Purchasing

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. Is First Multichannel Retailer to Enable Consumers to Purchase and Send e-Gift Cards via CashStar from their Smartphones

PORTLAND, Maine--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CashStar, the digital gifting and incentives company, today announced that it has added mobile web Gift Card purchasing to its powerful digital gifting platform. By fully optimizing the e-gifting experience for mobile devices, this new functionality makes eGift Card purchasing quick and easy on most smartphones. This capability enables retailers to tap into incremental eGift Card sales from the fast-growing mobile shopper market.

“We are excited to be the first CashStar retailer to take advantage of this terrific mobile functionality and will be rolling this out across all five of our brands – Williams-Sonoma®, Pottery Barn®, Pottery Barn Kids®, PBteen® and west elm®.”

According to a recent Pew Internet Project report, 87 percent of U.S. adult smartphone owners access the Internet or email on their handheld, with 68 percent of those doing so every day. Additionally, 25 percent of those smartphone owners say they mostly access the Internet using their phone, rather than with a computer. As consumers continue to embrace their mobile devices, retailers taking advantage of CashStar’s mobile web Gift Card purchasing capabilities can provide their customers with an excellent eGifting experience designed specifically for their smartphones. Furthermore, given the vast popularity of gift cards, this new product offering will help to accelerate mobile ecommerce and payments.

“Our customers are increasingly making purchases through their smartphones, so it is important that we give them a high quality, easy-to-use and seamless mobile gifting experience. CashStar’s mobile web gifting solution makes this possible,” said Pat Connolly, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer, Williams-Sonoma, Inc. “We are excited to be the first CashStar retailer to take advantage of this terrific mobile functionality and will be rolling this out across all five of our brands – Williams-Sonoma^®, Pottery Barn^®, Pottery Barn Kids^®, PBteen^® and west elm^®.”

By extending its existing eGift Card capabilities to smartphones, CashStar now provides consumers with a simplified mobile gifting experience anywhere, anytime. Consumers can choose a gift card design, include a personal message and select delivery timing, either immediately or at a later date. Retailers are able to provide a seamless mobile experience for consumers and offer mobile optimized promotional offers.

“With more than 200 leading brands taking advantage of our platform, CashStar continues to lead the way in providing retailers with the most innovative digital gifting offerings across multiple channels,” said CashStar Co-founder and CEO David Stone. “With this new capability, we’re enabling innovative retailers such as Williams-Sonoma to provide an enhanced user experience and further drive incremental sales. Given the rapidly growing eGift Card market, this new product will help to ignite mobile commerce and payments simultaneously.”

CashStar’s mobile optimized purchasing offering supports the following mobile platforms: Apple iPhone 3.1 plus; iOS 2.1-4.0; Blackberry 6.0 plus; and Android 2.1 and above.

About CashStar, Inc.

CashStar is the preferred digital gifting and incentives partner for retailers nationwide. Its powerful platform delivers retailers high-margin sales, promotes online and in-store traffic and encourages customer loyalty by providing consumers with the most personal, compelling and convenient gifting experiences available. CashStar is the only company to successfully combine an on-demand digital gifting and incentives platform with innovative multichannel marketing strategies. More than 200 brands are successfully partnering with CashStar to drive incremental sales, increase retention and boost profitability including Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, PBteen, west elm, Gap, Best Buy, Chili's Bar and Grill, Maggiano’s Little Italy, Hot Topic, The Container Store, CVS/pharmacy, The Home Depot, Landry's Restaurants, Pizza Hut, Regal Cinema, Staples and Travelocity. To learn more about how CashStar is constantly innovating the way businesses deliver personalized gifting experiences to consumers and partners in the digital world, please visit www.cashstar.com or e-mail [e-mail].