Australia's first SMS gift voucher service offers Broome businesses an ideal sales platform

Written on the 16 February 2017

87% of all Australians aged 14 to 49 own a smartphone, 94% of Australian text messages are opened within 5 minutes and $2.5b worth of vouchers purchased annually in Australia.

With these stats in mind, how can businesses market directly to smartphones?

Australia's first SMS gift voucher service has set up shop in Broome offering an alternative sales platform, tapping into the digital age of smartphones. 

cherrygift is a digital gift voucher system which markets local business offerings as gift ideas to its rapidly growing database of users.  Established by Cairns resident Fiona McFarlane, cherrygift was designed with smartphones in mind and optimises the ease of purchasing and redeeming gifts.

"Our model is designed to be hassle free for businesses we do the marketing and take care of the transactions," Says Fiona.

"There's no need for plastic cards or printing out emails, the voucher is sent to the recipient via SMS with set reminders to redeem. The cherrygift apple and android apps are also in development and to be launched later this year."

Gift Vouchers are quickly becoming the preferred gift option by Australians with 62% of Australians having received a paper or plastic gift voucher in the last 12 months and 69% have sent them.
The next evolution of the industry now moves to smartphones.

"With cherrygift, anyone online worldwide can purchase a voucher for your business and send it via SMS to a loved one anywhere in Australia. While giving businesses a global audience cherrygift also strengthens a local economy by enabling gift giving in local businesses, so more of the money stays local. The more local businesses sign up to cherrygift the greater the effect." Says Fiona.

From resorts, to hairdressers, to retail and service outlets, cherrygift offers every business a great opportunity to establish a direct marketing opportunity straight to a potential customer's phone.

Robyn Maher has been appointed Broome Sales Agent for cherrygift.  To discuss the potential of cherrygift for your business, call Robyn on 0409 082 731 or email robyn@uniquekimberley.com.au