Introducing GiftChoice for Ultimate Gift Card Experience – A Product I am Proud to Lead.

A couple of months ago, In November 2018, we proudly launched GiftChoice, the first product under the “Choice Platform” series by Intelligent Card Services. This is not an ordinary gift card. It is designed to give people the freedom and flexibility to use gift cards with multiple retailers. Traditionally, the gift cards are tied to a single retailer/brand. Gift choice breaks this tradition and allows you to choose any retailer you want.

I had the privilege of leading the engineering team to bring this product to life in just six months—a dream come true for us. I am delighted to share the story behind the GiftChoice card and how it’s changing how we think about gift cards.

The problem that we want to solve

If you’ve ever bought or received a gift card, you have probably faced this issue: most gift cards are tied to a single retailer. For example, if someone gives you a £25 Argos voucher, you can only spend it at Argos. What if you don’t want to buy anything from Argos? The card might sit in your wallet for months and go unused. This limitation has been a frustration for both gift receivers for years.

We saw an opportunity to fill this gap in the market. Why not create a gift card that the receiver can exchange with any retailer that they want? That’s exactly what we did with GiftChoice. Now, when you give someone a GiftChoice card, they can pick from 30 retailers/brands, ensuring the gift is both thoughtful and practical.

The Challenge

The GiftChoice plan came to me in April 2018. The goal was clear: launch the product by November 2018 to capture the Christmas market. With other companies working on similar products, it was a race to be first in the market.

But here’s the catch—we had just six months to design, develop, and deliver the product. Typically, a project like this would take a year or more. So, I had minimal time to think about it. I had a quick meeting with my team and decided it would be a huge challenge, which we are happy to take. Even though not everyone was 100% sure about completing the project by the launch date, I was confident with my team.

The Race Against Time

We had to move fast, but we also had to be innovative. After tirelessly working with the product and design teams, we finalised the physical card design and the function design of the platform. I set up two development teams spread across the UK and India and worked tirelessly to meet the tight deadline. I started one development team to work on setting up the framework of the project to cover the standard functions of an application. I also took the executive decision to use technologies like ASP.NET, Angular, and SQL Server, which our team was already familiar with, to speed up the process and to keep it simple. Also, decided to use a SAAS (Software as a Service) model, which allowed us to create a flexible platform that could support multiple “Choice” series in the future. The plan was to use each choice card as a client and have their own branding.

Once the functional design was ready, my idea was to prepare the customer-facing product first. This meant that some of the back-end processes, like automating voucher deliveries and setting up customer ticketing systems, would be developed after the initial launch. It was a bold move, but it paid off. After tirelessly working with my team (and a pregnant wife), GiftChoice went live in mid-November 2018 and was ready for the holiday season. Currently, the GiftChoice cards are available to purchase from every Sainsbury’s and Argos in the UK.

How GiftChoice Works

Here’s a simple breakdown of how GiftChoice works:

Purchase the Card: You buy a £25 GiftChoice card from Sainsbury’s, Argos, or our website.

Activate the Card: When the cashier swipes the card at the till, it gets activated by calling our API.

Scratch and Reveal: You scratch the card to reveal a unique voucher code.

Visit Our Website: Go to the GiftChoice website and enter the voucher code to exchange or redeem.

Choose Your Retailer: Our system validates the code and lets you select one retailer from a list of 30.

Confirm Your Choice: Once you’ve chosen a retailer (e.g., Argos), you confirm your selection.

Receive Your Voucher: We mark the voucher as redeemed and instantly email you a £25 Argos voucher that you can use in-store or online.

What’s Next for GiftChoice?

We plan to launch Style Choice, Social Choice, and Grocery Choice in 2019, each catering to different interests and lifestyles.

We are also expanding our reach. The first batch of GiftChoice cards is already available at Sainsbury’s and Argos, and we plan to make them available at most high-street retailers over the next two years.

Currently, we are using a stock of vouchers from each retailer, but we’re working on something even more significant. Our next project involves connecting directly to retailer APIs to generate vouchers on demand. This will eliminate the need for stock management where possible and make the process even more seamless.

Launching GiftChoice in just six months was one of the toughest challenges of my career, but it was also one of the most rewarding. Seeing the product on the high street shelves makes me proud. A big big salute to all the members of the product, design and development team who made this possible. Especially the development team, who worked a lot of weekends without any additional benefits to finish the product on time. That is where I see the value of team bonding and the passion for completing a challenge kicked in. The development team that I set up were ready for any challenge, and they delivered. And this is just the beginning. With more “Choice” platforms on the horizon, we’re excited to continue innovating and bringing even more flexibility to gifting.

So, the next time you plan to buy a gift card for someone, consider purchasing a GiftChoice card.