MILAN, ITALY — (Marketwire) — 05/16/12 — — Wrapp, the first social gifting service that lets you give your Facebook friends free gift cards to top national, multinational and regional retailers, is coming soon to Italy.
Wrapp makes it fun and easy to give, receive and redeem gift cards using mobile devices or the Web. It also allows Facebook friends to contribute to the presents.
For merchants, Wrapp is a proven customer-acquisition and retention platform for conducting discount-free, performance-based campaigns. With Wrapp, retailers use friend-to-friend marketing to drive highly targeted in-store and on-line sales, and get real-time access to aggregated campaign and customer demographic data.
“We just introduced the Wrapp service in the U.S. with some of the world-s biggest brands, such as H&M, Gap and Sephora,” said Claes Nordahl, Wrapp-s country manager for Italy. “Our plan is to do the same here in Italy.”
Since mid-November, when Wrapp began its commercial introduction, nearly 200,000 Wrapp active users have given their friends more than 1.6 million gift cards that can be redeemed in stores operated by some 70 major U.S. and European retailers.
Early participating merchants report that the average purchase generated by Wrapp is at least four to six times the value of the free gift card the retailer provides for friends to give to one another.
“As we begin our work here, it-s clear that Italian merchants understand the difference between Wrapp-s unique customer-acquisition platform that leverages , and the clones and copycats that are nothing more than new-age gift card resellers,” said Wrapp-s CEO Hjalmar Winbladh. “We don-t own ecommerce businesses and promise to never start one. That means we can ensure Italian retailers a long and lasting relationship with Wrapp built on innovation and real value creation.”
Wrapp began its unique brand of social gifting in Sweden in November last year. In January this year it received $10.5 million in Series A funding from Atomico and Greylock Partners resulting in Skype founder Niklas Zennström and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman joining Wrapp-s board of directors. In March, Wrapp took its service to Norway and the U.K., and only weeks ago introduced its service in the U.S.
“Gift alone or gift with your friends, with Wrapp you never have to miss celebrating important moments ever again,” said Nordahl. “Your friends will love the convenience of having their stored in their phone. Wrapp gift cards are always there when your friends are ready to use them.”
In addition to Italy, Wrapp will soon be available in Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, Turkey and Brazil.
To start sending to friends and family living in the U.S., U.K., Norway or Sweden — or who are planning to visit there soon — download the Wrapp mobile app from Apple-s App Store or Google Play. Or use the web app at and connect it to your Facebook account.
Wrapp was started last year by Wrapp-s CEO Hjalmar Winbladh and a small team of Sweden-s best and brightest entrepreneurs, including Andreas Ehn, Spotify-s first chief technology officer; Magnus Hult, who played a key role in building Spotify-s original technology and platform; Aage Reerslev, founder of mobile browser maker Squace; Leo Giertz, founder of Barefoot Hackers, one of Sweden-s most acclaimed iPhone development shops; Carl Fritjofsson, strategy advisor to Groupon.se; and Fabian Mansson, former CEO of H&M and Eddie Bauer, who now serves as Wrapp-s chairman.
Winbladh co-founded Sendit, the first mobile Internet company, where he served as CEO, and took it public in 1997, before being acquired by Microsoft. In 2006 Winbladh co-founded Rebtel, now the world-s largest independent mobile VoIP company, where he continues as chairman.
Wrapp is a social gifting service for celebrating friends with free and paid gifts from top brands. Wrapp allows friends to contribute to gifts, and makes it fun and easy to give, receive and redeem using mobile devices and the web.
Founded in 2011, Wrapp is based in Stockholm, with offices in the U.K., U.S., France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Japan, Australia and Brazil. Celebrate friends every day at .
:
Greg Spector
+1 415 717 4666
Claes Nordahl
+39 340 673 5992
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