Gifting platform, Govalo, launches new integration with Recharge

Listen to this article:

If ever there were an eCommerce match made in heaven, it’s the recent marriage of Govalo and subscription commerce solution, Recharge.

Govalo is a digital platform that brings all the benefits of gifting to Shopify stores. With Govalo, merchants can set up a highly personalized gift card buying experience for their online customers. The Govalo app also allows merchants to customize the gift card user interface, so the gift cards match the rest of the Shopify store.

If you take a closer look at this month’s gifting report from Trends.co, it makes sense why Recharge would be pleased to enter into this partnership. Trends found gifting has a 28% return on investment, a 19% share of customers who return within 90 days of gifting, and a 23% increase in referral rates with only one gifting campaign.

While Govalo certainly helps merchants enhance their gifting programs, the recent Recharge integration takes eCommerce to the next level. Recharge is a commerce platform that sets merchants up with seamless subscription capabilities.

“I am thrilled to harness the power of Recharge while making the gifting process of a subscription seamless. Subscriptions are a highly gift-able category, and without integrations such as these—the process is anything but smooth. Recharge and Govalo partnering together are game-changing for digital gifting and how subscriptions will be used now and in the future,” said Rhian Beutler, founder and CEO of Govalo.

Subscription commerce is growing in the eCommerce world as a surefire way for merchants to increase average order value, recurring revenue, and customer lifetime value. According to the 2022 State of Subscription Commerce report, subscription merchants grew their overall customer base by an average of 31% year-over-year. 

This Govalo x Recharge integration makes it possible for merchants who have built a successful gifting program to capture all the benefits of both gifting and subscription commerce.

But, it’s also critical to remember a giftable subscription and a gift card differ in functionality. 

“A giftable subscription allows the gift giver to send a subscription to the giftee seamlessly. In contrast, gift cards have a bit more flexibility regarding the gift recipient's ability to purchase any product from a merchant's store,” explained Beutler. 

“That being said, gift cards can be used in many different ways, from the traditional gift card as a gift, to enhancing customer experience, to product seeding; the use cases are just starting to unfold as our adoption increases.”

On Twitter, Beutler said this integration will help Govalo users reach more customers, reduce customer acquisition costs, increase lifetime value, and boost average order value.

“The Govalo x Recharge integration allows merchants to offer their subscription products as gifts,” said Beutler.

“By using the integration, both the buyer and recipient experience a seamless end-to-end gifted subscription, which concludes with the gift recipient completely controlling how they interface with the existing subscription, as well as carrying over all perks from the gifted subscription to the extended subscription should the gift recipient choose to extend the said subscription.”