At Govalo, we want to make certain that our merchants, new or longtime, have a strong foundation surrounding our product and strategy. We believe in having this, merchants can continue to make the most of the tools we provide, giving them the knowledge they need to succeed. We aim to provide the best customer experience to our merchants so they can continue to do the same for their customers.
With this blog and others to come, we are answering the most frequently asked questions and giving you access to the who's, what's, why's, and benefits of Govalo.
#1 - What is Govalo?
Govalo is a digital gifting solution for Shopify merchants. For many merchants, gifting forms a major portion of sales, with ecommerce growing rapidly across all product categories. However, many merchants rely on basic gift cards, clunky workarounds for subscriptions, and are generally unable to deliver features essential to a great customer experience.
At Govalo, we’re changing this. We empower merchants to do more with their digital gifting, giving them greater control to design the experience that their customers are seeking. We offer enhanced gift card functionality with numerous customization options, a unique out-of-stock feature, store credit management, giftable products, and gift subscriptions. And we’re just getting started.
#2 - Who founded Govalo?
Govalo was founded by Rhian Beutler, a near decade long veteran of the Shopify ecosystem with two decades of experience in retail and adjacent industries. She founded Govalo after seeing that despite the growth in gifting and as the US neared 50% ecommerce penetration, digital gift cards were still so stuck in the past. Basic and outdated, there was no elegant solution for Shopify that offered even basic functionality like sending a gift card directly to another person. So, she started building.
Prior to Govalo, Rhian had a career in banking, and co-founded Venntov - one of Shopify’s most established developers with popular apps like SEO Manager. She shares her wealth of experience through speaking engagements and attends conferences around the world. As well as regularly being a featured guest on various ecommerce podcasts, she also hosts her own, Commerce Tea, through which she offers advice alongside other industry experts, promoting entrepreneurship, ecommerce, and digital gifting.
#3 - What makes Govalo different from Shopify’s native gift card, or other gift card apps?
Govalo offers a feature-rich, enhanced gift card which gives customers the personalized experience they’re looking for. Shopify’s native solution is basic, lacking functionality such as the ability to send the gift card to the intended recipient. While other solutions tackle some of these issues, Govalo is a truly enhanced gift card experience for both the merchant and customer. Our app enables customers to add their personal touches such as direct sending, adding a gift note, schedule sending tied to the merchant’s timezone, and more. We also offer unique features that make it easier for merchants to sell more even when faced with stock shortages; our out-of-stock feature gives customers the option to buy a gift card instead when a product is unavailable.
Govalo also makes it easy to customize your gift card, allowing multiple gift card products plus the ability to upload multiple images to each gift card. You can customize the look of the user interface, and if you’re on our higher tier plans you’ll have access to a customizable gift card look-up and balance tool. The app scales with your gifting strategy to go beyond gift cards with subscriptions and giftable products, all with direct, personal support from our team.
#4 - What does Govalo offer apart from gift cards?
Our mission is to reinvent the digital gifting experience. Therefore we are proud to offer multiple other ways to enhance your digital gifting strategy. We are constantly working to add new features that will make gifting as seamless and as personalized as possible so you can focus on doing more and selling more.
As well as gift cards, we also currently offer:
- A store credit feature that simplifies and streamlines the returns process.
- An out of stock feature which allows a customer to purchase an item that is no longer in stock at a given moment, negating dead ends on a store’s website.
- Gift subscriptions, as partners with Bold and Recharge, which allows customers to gift a subscription for a chosen period of time, all while making the experience personal and secure.
- The ability to bulk issue gift cards.
- Integrations with email platforms like Klaviyo, Omnisend, and Drip.
- Giftable products - (coming soon!)
#5 - How does pricing work for Govalo?
At Govalo we offer a three-tiered pricing structure that allows merchants to select the plan that will best serve their gifting strategy, with upgraded plans offering additional features to enrich their gift products.
Our Essential plan is free to install and we charge 2.9% of the total gift card value purchased by customers. Another step up, our Premium plan costs $79 a month and charges 2.25% of total gift card revenue. Lastly, our Enterprise plan costs $399 a month and charges 1.5% of gift card income. We want our product to be cost effective and the smart choice for your store. More to come on the specifics of each selection.
#6 - What size of merchant does Govalo best serve?
ALL! We offer different plans to suit different sizes of merchants to ensure they have access to the features they need to enrich their gifting experience. Our Essential plan doesn’t have a base monthly fee as we want any size store, no matter how new to Shopify and ecommerce, to benefit from our product. We charge a percentage over the gift card amount, calculated at the moment the gift card is purchased, in order to grow alongside you.
- Our Essential plan includes the ability to sell customized gift cards, to view basic analytics, to schedule gift card delivery, to send a gift card directly to the recipient, and the out of stock integration.
- The next tier, our Premium plan, includes all of the essential features plus: a personalized gift card buying experience, a customized gift card redemption page, a balance lookup tool, and both Klaviyo and Omnisend integration.
- Lastly, our Enterprise plan includes all of the premium features in addition to: a dedicated account manager, custom template integrations, priority to access support, and volume discount.
#7 - How does Govalo benefit merchants?
Govalo aims to provide customers what they want - flexibility, personalization, and a smooth customer experience when buying a gift. The better that experience is, the more gift products a merchant will sell, especially during crucial sales periods like the end-of-year holidays. By offering these enhanced gift products, merchants can in turn improve retention and benefit from increased cart spend, especially from gift cards. Govalo works alongside merchants to provide a gifting experience that keeps customers coming back.
For example, merchants using Govalo see an average order increase of $75 when a customer checks out using a gift card. The app also enables customers to add their personal touches, like gift notes, to send their gift cards directly to the recipient, and to schedule gift cards in advance, setting the local timezone to ensure gift cards arrive precisely when they’re supposed to.
There are also unique ways merchants can use gift cards outside of gifting. For example, they could integrate them as part of a loyalty program or as an alternative to discount codes, lessening the cost of customer acquisition and reliance on discounting. We also allow merchants to maintain sales even in absence of inventory with our out of stock feature, negating dead ends on websites and providing security despite supply chain stagnation and fluctuation.
And that’s just the benefits of our gift cards. Add to this the ability to offer a real gift subscription experience, as well as store credit management, and giftable products, and Govalo becomes a truly all-in-one digital gifting tool for Shopify and an invaluable asset come key gifting sales periods.
Make your customers happy, and see your sales soar!!
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Whether you’re new to Govalo or one of our first merchants, we hope this blog gives you insight into what we’re about and positively contributes to your Govalo experience. More answers are to come, and if you need additional support or have further questions, please see the linked support documentation or contact us today!
For Support Documentation: https://support.govalo.com/
To Contact Us: https://govalo.com/pages/contact