Google Pay Now Lets You Buy and Send Digital Gift Cards in India

Google Pay users in India can now purchase and send digital gift cards in real time. To enable the new experience, Pine Labs-owned end-to-end gifting company Qwikcilver has partnered with Google Pay and listed its consumer brand Woohoo on Google Pay’s Spot Platform. Qwikcilver claims that the latest update brings the option to choose digital gift cards from over 150 brands that can be used at offline stores across 1,500 cities and major online portals. It offers various brand cards including the Amazon Pay Gift Card, Flipkart Gift Card, Uber E-Gift, and Google Play Gift Code, among others.

You can access the Woohoo virtual gift card store on Google Pay Spot Platform to purchase and send digital gift cards using Google Pay. The virtual gift card store is accessible by searching for “Woohoo” on the Google Pay app. You can also find it under the Business tab of the payments app. As an introductory offer, Woohoo is also offering up to Rs. 500 cashback for customers purchasing new gift cards through Google Pay.

Google Pay offers Woohoo digital gift card store as a Spot for quick purchases of gift cards

Once purchased, the digital gift cards can be shared directly through the Woohoo virtual store over an email, SMS message, or both. Users also don’t need to sign up on Woohoo separately as the Spot Platform allows the virtual store to sign in users via their Google Pay account.

“While Qwikcilver has enabled Woohoo digital gift card store as a preferred destination for consumers, the presence on Google Pay will enhance consumer experience to use digital gifting with a click of a button,” Kumar Sudarsan, President – Gift, Prepaid and Stored Value, Pine Labs, said in a mailed statement.

Qwikcilver claims that it powers every nine out of 10 gift cards in India. The top three categories in its gift cards portfolio being e-commerce, grocery, and fashion. The arrival of Qwikcilver’s Woohoo on Spot Platform may help Google Pay bolster its presence in offline retail in the country as customers will be able to purchase digital gift cards for offline stores.

“The initiative is aimed at easing the entire process of purchasing and sending digital gift cards on the back of changing consumer behaviour,” said Sudarsan.

Google Pay introduced Spot Platform in September last year to provide merchants with online space for transactions. It debuted with businesses including UrbanClap, Goibibo, MakeMyTrip, and RedBus, among others. However, the offering expanded with new entrants including online delivery service startup Dunzo in the recent past.

Although the Spot Platform offers an in-app store-like experience on Android devices, it is so far quite limited in terms of experience for iPhone users. Google, however, does encourage developers to transform their mobile websites and Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) into a Spot to expand the platform.

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