Young Entrepreneur launches Power Gift: exchange unwanted gift cards for cash

A young entrepreneur is set out to change the way Kiwis see their gift cards and what they do with them. Allen Shegay has created a website with an innovative concept called Power Gift which allows users with unwanted gift cards exchange them back for money.

The website has been in its beta stage for the past 2 months but this week has been officially released in it's final stand-alone version. Regardless of the beta staging the website has proved to be a popular hit with dozens of users signing up in its first few weeks and over a thousand visitors on the site.

Allen who is a graphic design student at Massey University says there is currently a problem with gift cards whereby the recipient is forced to use it at only one store.

"A number of times the recipient may not really want to shop at the particular store in which cases the gift card ends up unredeemed and because of this a large number of gift cards expire before they are used".

Power Gift solves this problem by allowing users to 'cash in' their unwanted gift card for money through the website. The users get up to 90% cash for the value of their gift card. This allows Power Gift to then sell those gift cards at discounted rates of up to 35% for the bargain hunters.

"The idea is that everybody wins: those that have a gift card they're not going to use may as well get some cash for it and those who love shopping can find themselves a gift card at a discount for their favorite stores."

Allen hopes to dramatically increase gift cards' and vouchers' potential, enabling every Kiwi to make the most of them through Power Gift. The website is located at www.powergift.co.nz

ENDS

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