NetLink Resource Group was initially approached by Marriott International to fully re-design its gift card site for the U.S. market, to improve on the original site’s lackluster functionality and, most importantly, increase revenue. NetLink provided a completely re-built, custom architecture, creating a dynamic, fully e-commerce-enabled site that offers the ability to purchase multiple cards sent to multiple addresses, as well as is integrated into the client’s credit card system, its card fulfillment operations, and its third party gift card providers.
Since the initial deployment of the U.S. gift card site, NetLink has created a site for the U.K. retail market, a comprehensive online wedding registry destination, a site for promotional sales through airline partners, as well as an internal web application that allows all call centers throughout the world to cross-sell gift cards to customers when they call to make reservations at the company’s thousands of hotels and resorts. The sites, also hosted by NetLink, use the most cutting-edge analytics for tracking all gift card sales, and the effectiveness of various promotional offers in real time – all viewed by product and market.
Since going live in November 2005, Marriott customers have purchased more than 150,000 items from the gift card sites, resulting in more than $35 million revenue. NetLink continues to host and provide innovative solutions for all of the applications that make up the Marriott online gift card offering, which generates significant revenue for the hospitality leader’s global business.