For the past 9 months, Giphter has only been a third party application that participating merchants can link to from their existing websites. This model is great for merchants with good websites, but leaves businesses and groups without a strong web presence in the lurch. This has always troubled us here at Giphter, because we’ve been unable to help these web-deprived, would-be clients. Designing everyone new websites is always an option, but doesn’t exactly jive with our current Giphter business plan.
So about 3 months ago we hatched something fairly ambitious. Let’s stop looking at Giphter as a website / 3rd party app that only sells gift certficates. Instead, let’s turn it inside out, create a whole suite of cool features that merchants can use, and start using Giphter to actually create and host entire websites.
As far as we were concerned, this new idea was pure gold. We worked out the details and Giphter Platform was born. Before diving in, check out the first 3 sites to launch on Platform. The Dardanelles, Five Points South (group) and Fire launched last week, and are great examples of what Platform can do.
With Giphter Platform, we’re able to make customized, professionally designed, very affordable websites that give businesses and groups unparalleled control over their content. Below are some of the features Platform offers:
- Upload and manage a photo gallery
- Add and manage an event calendar
- Upload and manage documents of any kind, most notably restaurant menus or special event fliers.
- Write a blog, and integrate it into your website. All of our blogs are powered by Wordpress, the best blogging engine out there.
- Allow visitors to provide content through blog comments (moderated, of course)
- Collect e-mail addresses for use with a monthly newsletter, or special event notices
- And most importantly, integrate gift certificate sales directly into your web site. No more linking somewhere else.
And believe it or not, Giphter is actually built on top of Platform too. That might blow your mind, but it’s true! Keep your eyes out for an in-depth tour of Giphter Platform coming to the Giphter website soon.
