KardKarma
KardKarma is a business where people can buy, sell, and swap retail and restaurant gift cards. Every year there is nearly $90 billion dollars worth of gift cards that are sold to consumers, however, billions of dollars worth of these cards are never used. Many people receive gift cards from employers, friends, family, and others for products and services that they neither want or need. KardKarma will provide a local based card advertising site similar to the Craigslist model. By connecting local consumers to local consumers, KardKarma will distinguish itself from other card swap/sell sites which tend to clearinghouses for discounted gift cards from retailers and restaurants.
- Business Name: KardKarma
- Product: Gift Cards
- Potential Customers: Both men and women over the age of 18
Concerns
Fraudulent Gift Cards
Solution:
In order to become a participant on the web site, users while have to register and verify an email address before being allowed to post ads. The ads will also be subject to verification before being made active to attempt to spot any trends that may indicate fraud.
Age of Users
Solution:
The site may use some sort of age verification methodology, however, much more research and planning must be done before this concern can be solved.
Gift Card Availability
Solution:
The site start-out in only 1-4 cities, concentrating on getting traffic to the site and thereby seeking to increase the number of users seeking to buy, sell, or swap cards. It will be critical get as many users as possible, as quickly as possible. By keeping the number of cities small, a more concentrated advertising effort can be used, that will be far more cost effective.
KardKarma Becomes Huge
Solution:
The larger the site becomes and the more cities it incorporates, the more server resources will be required. It will be critical for the site to have the ability handle any number of users. This will always be an on-going problem/concern and as such will have to be constantly reviewed and addressed.
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ReplyDeleteYour business seems to be the perfect answer for swapping or selling the unwanted gift cards. There are lots of people out there that have received gift cards, but have never use them. As a result, this will be a great opportunity for consumers to exchange the unwanted gift card for the one of their choice. Or, maybe sell the one in their possession now.
ReplyDeleteI read your link at http://www.suite101.com/content/online-shopping-for-most-popular-gift-cards-a176332, and I was amazed how TowerGroup estimated that $5 billion was lost because consumers failed to spend the total card value by the expiration date. To make matters worse, many stores charge a gift card inactivity fee that will slowly lower the gift card balance to $0. Good post!