Small business lender Kabbage is creating a way for companies to drive revenue while social distancing through an online gift card platform launched today.
The Kabbage website allows consumers to buy gift cards to support local businesses and drive revenue while quarantine measures encourage customers to stay indoors. Companies can register for free.
The platform took about 100 employees — almost 20% of Kabbage’s total workforce — and three days to develop, from inception to launch.
“This is a reaction to the current crisis a lot of small businesses are facing,” said Kabbage CEO Rob Frohwein. “These businesses are beloved in their communities … so why not give the communities an opportunity to buy gift certificates for that business, which allows the business to shift revenue to now, versus later down the road.”
Launched Wednesday morning, Kabbage is “literally making updates to the site hour by hour,” Frohwein said. The Atlanta-based company is working on additional features for the website, such as adding a search function for consumers and creating a directory of participating businesses up front. For businesses not yet on the platform, Kabbage is working on a solution that allows consumers to “pre-buy” gift certificates for a business. Once purchased, those businesses will be notified via email that there is money waiting to be redeemed on the platform.
See also: Kabbage continues e-commerce client push with GoDaddy integration
Kabbage, which partners with the Salt Lake City-based Celtic Bank, uses banking and accounting data, and web analytics to underwrite and service small businesses. The majority of Kabbage clients are companies with 20 employees or fewer. It offers loans up to $250,000 with terms of six, 12 or 18 months in all 50 states.
It is unprecedented for Kabbage to launch a new product within such a short time frame, Frohwein said. “The timing of this boggles the mind,” he added.
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