SAN DIEGO—Transaction Wireless™ (TW), a leading provider of virtual and mobile gift cards, announced today it has signed two new retailers for its virtual, mobile and gift card services: low price department store Gordmans and convenience-store chain Thorntons. TW will utilize its proprietary technology for gift card services to create turnkey stores on both the retailers’ corporate websites and Facebook® Pages. These new agreements mark the first customers launched through TW’s relationship with Cincinnati, Ohio based Fifth Third Processing Solutions, a pioneer in providing secure electronic payments and credit, debit and gift card processing services.
When available, consumers can log on to either www.gordmans.com or www.thorntonsinc.com, or visit the retailers’ pages on Facebook Platform, they’ll be able to select either virtual (email) or mobile gift cards, powered by Transaction Wireless. TW will also be managing the sale of Gordmans’ traditional plastic cards and both retailers will be offering a mobile short code balance inquiry option for gift cards, saving precious time for consumers and administration costs for retailers. In addition, retailers can utilize TW’s campaign management system to deliver targeted marketing messages to consumers such as upcoming sales, promotions and coupons.
TW’s patented digital gifting and marketing technology offers a turnkey solution for retailers and other merchants to offer a variety of gift card services from traditional (plastic) to mobile. TW also launched its gift card store for Facebook Platform to enable social gifting earlier this year, providing both virtual and traditional plastic cards through clients’ Facebook Pages, giving access to Facebook’s more than 400 million active users with virtually no ramp up time or dedicated resources. Both the digital gifting and social gifting services allow consumers to purchase the gift cards, create customizable messages and send them instantly both via mobile phone as well as to the giver and recipient’s Facebook Pages. A link for a secure virtual card is sent to an email address for printing options as well. Facebook gifting also increases brand exposure in social mediums and, for so many who rely on Facebook birthday and calendar reminders, it helps ensure important occasions are never forgotten.
Both Gordmans and Thorntons are leading retailers in the Midwest, with 68 low-priced department stores and over 160 convenience stores respectively.
“Digital gifting has seen tremendous growth in the past few years with the adoption of virtual gift cards, and now mobile devices provide a ubiquitous platform for consumer gifting due to the ease of use, cost savings and security features which are ideally suited for stored value programs,” said Bruce Springer, president and CEO, Transaction Wireless. “We’re thrilled to be working with Gordmans, Thorntons and Fifth Third Processing Solutions to bring these exciting new gift card options to their customers.”
“Our commitment to our processing partners is to deliver the most innovative and most effective technology available,” said Donald Boeding, president, merchant services, Fifth Third Processing Solutions. “This technology helps to provide our clients a new, more cost-effective way of handling their multi-billion dollar gift card business.”
The new gift cards can be found at www.gordmans.com or www.facebook.com/gordmans and at www.thorntonsinc.com or www.facebook.com/thorntonsinc, when available.
About Gordmans Stores, Inc.
Gordmans is an everyday low price department store concept featuring a large selection of the latest brands, fashions and styles at up to 60% off department and specialty store regular prices every day in a fun, easy-to-shop environment. Our merchandise assortment includes apparel for all ages, accessories, footwear and home décor. The origins of Gordmans date back to 1915, and as of August 4, 2010, we operated 68 stores in 16 primarily Midwestern states situated in a variety of shopping center developments, including regional enclosed shopping malls, lifestyle centers and power centers. For more information, please visit www.gordmans.com.
About Thorntons
Thorntons Inc is a leading independent gasoline/convenience store chain retailer—marketing throughout the Midwest under the brand name of Thorntons. Thorntons ranks among Forbes magazine’s 500 largest privately held companies, and is one of Kentucky’s largest privately held companies with over $1.7 billion in annual revenue. James H. Thornton founded Thorntons in 1971 and they are headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. They operate over 160 convenience stores, one travel plaza, and eight car washes.
About Fifth Third Processing Solutions
Fifth Third Processing Solutions, LLC delivers innovative payment transaction processing and acceptance solutions to create and support complex payment strategies for merchants, businesses, and financial institutions around the world. A pioneer in card payment acceptance in the early 1970s, Fifth Third Processing Solutions is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio and is a joint venture with Advent International and Fifth Third Bank, a subsidiary of Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB).
As a premier full service payment solutions provider, the Company provides servicing solutions and product engineering for financial institutions’ and retailers’ credit card, debit card, merchant and private label programs processing over 33.3 billion ATM and point of sale transactions and over $315.5 billion in debit and credit card sales volume annually. The Company supports over 180,000 merchant and financial institution locations and 11,000 ATMs in 44 states and 11 countries. According to the Nilson Report (March 2010), the Company is the third largest U.S. merchant transaction acquirer. Learn more at www.FTPSLLC.com.
About Transaction Wireless
Transaction Wireless (TW) is a mobile commerce, payment and one-to-one relationship marketing company enabling a unique link between consumers, retailers and brands via any PC or mobile device leveraging TW’s proprietary technologies. With unparalleled solutions, Transaction Wireless’ product portfolio includes a patented digital gifting and marketing solution; a multimedia mobile messaging service to extend any marketing program to the mobile phone or PC; a merchant mobile POS credit card terminal; and a turnkey Facebook Platform solution for B2B or direct-to-consumer social gifting. The Company is headquartered in San Diego, California and counts AMC Entertainment, SpaFinder, Bass Pro Shops and Hallmark Business Connections, among others as current clients. More information can be found at www.transactionwireless.com.