Giftz ICO Review: Loyalty Reward Programmes Built On The Blockchain

By
Fernando Sanchez
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Giftz Ico Review: Loyalty Reward Programmes Built On The Blockchain
Giftz Ico Review: Loyalty Reward Programmes Built On The Blockchain
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Understand, reward, engage, and retain. This word combo pretty much sums up all the concepts that a retailer must understand and nurture, if they are to thrive and maintain a loyal customer base.

Customer reward programmes are great assets for a retailer, as they create a synergistic relationship between the customer and the vendor. Rewards programmes empower the customer, drive engagement, and foster loyalty. A five percent boost in customer retention can increase profits by as much as 80 percent, so it’s no surprise that these programmes are so ubiquitous.

https://youtu.be/roO7OAXum0k

Many companies and service providers worldwide feature such programmes, from airlines, to grocery retailers, coffee chains, credit companies, and many more. According to research, the average American citizen participates in at least 18 different reward schemes at any given time.

Now, blockchain technology has opened even more avenues through which rewards programmes can be developed, distributed, and supported.

Giftz intends to make full use of the blockchain to introduce a customer rewards programme platform, enabling any business to tokenize their goods and services so they can be sold on an exchange.

This piece is an analysis of the facts available about the Giftz ICO. It should not be read as offering advice or a recommendation. While ICOs have quickly become a popular tool for funding projects and start-ups, they can also be very high-risk for token purchasers.

Additionally, ICOs currently have an unclear legal and financial status. Token buyers may find that their purchase does not offer them any security or equity because the ICO is closer to a crowdfunding initiative than a traditional IPO. As such, any investor who plans to buy tokens during any ICO needs to obtain all relevant independent advice and carry out their own appropriate due diligence.

Giftz’s value proposition: A platform for luxury loyalty tokens for everyone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGhmrlt7mpE

Giftz proposes the creation of platform to enable the purchase, swap, and trade of loyalty tokens that are not just for the wealthy. Blockchain technology will enable anyone to acquire tokens that can be used for goods and services.

Giftz: Numbers and quick facts

  • Token Name – itCoin Black (ITC)
  • ICO Start Date – November 24, 2017
  • ICO End Date – End of February, 2018
  • Number of coins created – 50,000,000
  • Number of coins available for the token sale – 12,000,000

The Giftz coin

As with any other ICO, the company will issue its own currency. In this case, Giftz offers three tokens:

  • itCoin® Silver
  • itCoin® Gold
  • itCoin® Black (our only publicly sold token).

Once created, the tokens will be allocated as follows:

Incentives & Bounties – 28%

  • Liquidity Pools – 35%
  • Contributors – 14%
  • Corporate Infrastructure – 23%

ETH exclusively will be accepted as payment during the token sale. It is important to highlight that investors must have their own ETH wallet. Any ETH sent from exchanges such as Coinbase will not be accepted. Transactions are non-refundable.

All unsold coins will be burned.

Read more about Giftz’s ICO here.

The team

Giftz’s website presents a team of 20 people.

The team does include experts in the blockchain field, and personnel from the financial field.

The company also states that some of the team members come from the media world. While this may be impressive in its own right, it may have little bearing on the purpose of an ICO.

All team members feature a link to their LinkedIn profile.

Social Media presence and digital footprint

A strong presence on Social Media is usually a good indicator of a company’s popularity, though it is not the only factor that determines success.

Here’s the numbers for Giftz at the time of writing (December 2017).

  • Twitter – 350 followers
  • Facebook – 4,704 followers
  • YouTube – 0 followers
  • Instagram – 42 followers
  • Medium – 16 followers
  • LinkedIn – n/a
  • Telegram – 147 followers

Overall, Giftz’s presence on Social Media is not great. This is in no way a reflection of its potential success or future trends, but at present time, the company does not have a worthy following.

Website quality & layout

An ICO’s website is the first port of call for any potential investors. Giftz’s website is a rather messy affair. It appears crowded and busy, trying to cram too many ideas, concepts, and graphics on the screen. There are many different font sizes and styles, which is jarring. From a design point of view, it could do with a makeover. Some sections are superfluous, and others should be made into their own page.

The site is at least secure, which you would expect from a website dealing with cryptocurrencies.

Competition

Giftz’s proposition of blockchain-based loyalty rewards is far from unique. Other companies are in the process of developing similar platforms. Loyyal and Biocoin, for example, to name just two.

Competition is always welcome, of course, so every proposition must carve its on niche. As a newcomer, Giftz has some ground to cover yet.

Whitepaper

A well laid out, informative, comprehensive Whitepaper is a must for any ICO, if they are to be taken seriously. Documentation is sometimes treated as an afterthought, leaving many companies open to some criticism.

Giftz’s Whitepaper is well laid out and well written, but suffers from being overly technical and formula-heavy in places. All this mathematical and technical stuff could be cut out and placed elsewhere, to streamline the paper.

Nevertheless, Giftz’s Whitepaper is acceptable.

Conclusion

Customer loyalty reward programmes are big business indeed. They are invaluable tools for customer retention, loyalty, and even marketing, as word-of-mouth of such-and-such programme spreads.

Giftz’s proposition is neither particularly unique, nor is it revolutionary. Other ICOs are already tapping into this profitable niche, so it remains to be seen how much of a market share can Giftz acquire.

We’ll review Giftz’s performance again in due course.

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