Z Centar
Z Centar, one of Zagreb’s most vibrant shopping destinations, has joined the SmartGifty network by launching their own digital gift card system, powered by our technology and supported by a sleek self-service kiosk on-site.
In an age where convenience drives loyalty, Z Centar’s new gift card offers shoppers a fast, flexible, and intuitive way to give. Whether it’s a last-minute gift or a thoughtful gesture, buyers can instantly purchase a gift card, while recipients enjoy the freedom to choose what they truly want.
What Z Centar gained with SmartGifty:
- Increased foot traffic and repeat visits – as gift cards drive both new and returning customers into the center.
- A modern gifting solution – elevating Z Centar’s brand as a forward-thinking retail destination.
- Streamlined operations – with SmartGifty handling the full technical setup, kiosk integration, and real-time reporting.
- Data insights – providing Z Centar with valuable information on usage trends, peak periods, and consumer behavior.
- Flexible, scalable solution – allowing future expansion and promotional campaigns tied to gifting.
“Best gifts are the ones we choose ourselves” – and with Z Centar’s new system, that philosophy is now a reality.
We’re proud to have delivered a solution that supports both the customer experience and business growth. Thank you to the Z Centar team for their trust and collaboration — we’re excited to support your journey as a destination where shopping meets smart loyalty.
Arena Centar
A Seamless Transition to a Modern Gift Card Solution
The Challenge
Arena Centar Zagreb, one of the largest shopping centers in Croatia, was using an outdated gift card system based on a banking infrastructure. This setup came with high costs, lacked real-time data, and did not support the issuance of e-gift cards—an increasingly important feature in today’s digital-first world. Seeking a more flexible, cost-effective, and data-driven solution, the shopping center decided to upgrade its gift card program.
The Solution
To address these challenges, we implemented a closed-loop gift card system through SmartGifty. The transition allowed Arena Centar to take full control of its gift card program, reducing operational costs and enhancing customer experience. A key feature of the migration was the ability to seamlessly exchange old banking-based gift cards for new ones, with SmartGifty providing detailed insights into the remaining balances on the legacy cards.
One of the biggest challenges was ensuring a smooth migration from the old system to the new one without disrupting ongoing transactions. Our team successfully completed the entire transition in a single day (Saturday), with zero downtime for gift card issuance and redemption. The one-day cutover followed several weeks of preparation and onboarding.
The Results
The new gift card system provides Arena Centar with:
✅ E-gift card functionality – expanding the options for customers and retailers.
✅ Real-time data & analytics – offering valuable insights into gift card usage.
✅ Cost savings – eliminating high banking fees and keeping funds within the shopping center.
✅ Simplified clearing system – improving financial management and reconciliation.
By upgrading to SmartGifty, Arena Centar now has a modern, efficient, and customer-friendly gift card solution that enhances both business operations and customer satisfaction.
DONE4YOU
Challenge
DONE4YOU, an innovative payment platform which offers payment terminals in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg, was looking for an effective way to integrate gift cards into its payment ecosystem to enhance customer experience. With operations across multiple countries, they faced the challenge of creating a smooth and consistent process for customers to purchase and redeem gift cards in their local markets.
Solution
By adopting SmartGifty’s digital gift card solution, DONE4YOU was able to streamline its payment system and offer customers an easy, flexible way to use digital gift cards. The integration of SmartGifty’s platform provided an intuitive, centralized solution for customers to select, purchase, and redeem gift cards in a way that was both secure and user-friendly. Additionally, the solution offered real-time data tracking, helping DONE4YOU monitor sales, customer behavior, and trends across the three countries it serves.
Results
- Improved Customer Engagement: The integration led to a noticeable increase in repeat business, as customers found it easier to use gift cards in their payment process.
- Expanded Reach Across Borders: The solution was easily adaptable to the local needs of customers in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg, helping DONE4YOU broaden its customer base.
- Streamlined Operations: The simplified gift card redemption process helped the company improve overall efficiency, reducing manual efforts and improving customer satisfaction.
DONE4YOU now enjoys higher customer retention, a seamless payment experience, and valuable data-driven insights to optimize their offerings and services across multiple markets.
CC Real
What is CC Real?
CC Real is one of the leading companies in managing shopping centers in Europe and beyond. It operates three facilities in Croatia – two in Zagreb and one in Split.
Smart reason
The latter turned to us due to numerous challenges they faced: the lack of an efficient system for managing gift vouchers. They still wanted to keep the vouchers (for now) as they didn’t want to change the purchasing and spending process in stores; however, there was too much work involved in redemption and control.
To address this gap, they decided to adopt the “back end” system of Smartgifty, which we carefully designed and tailored to their specific needs and processes.
Smart solution
One of the major requirements was to increase control over voucher issuance and ensure complete traceability from the order of printing vouchers, inventory location, traceability of individual vouchers based on issuance location (different centers), issuance at information points, all the way to actual customer usage in stores in all three centers.
Voucher issuance and money associated with gift vouchers are managed within the system, thus the possibility of errors is eliminated, as control is maintained every day. The secretariat or controlling department of each center has the ability to redeem/register vouchers acquired in each store and perform all necessary checks, such as reviewing issued cards per center, spending per store, reviewing unredeemed vouchers, reviewing legal entities, reviewing cash deposits, reviewing invoice numbers under which each voucher is sold, etc.
The administrator has access to all centers, where they can also see all of the above.
Smart result
The SmartGifty solution for CC Real represents the ideal combination of advanced technology for managing gift cards and physical vouchers. Considering they wanted to retain physical vouchers as well as the current sales process in stores.
However, digitizing the background process still represents a significant step towards complete digitization of the voucher process. This not only improved insight into the sales and usage of gift vouchers among tenants in different time periods but also reduced opportunities for abuse and optimized and digitized almost the entire process, resulting in significant time and cost savings.
BTC City
Smart client
BTC City has a rich and dynamic history that began in 1954 and has evolved over several decades. In the last 30 years, the company has directed its development towards a trade and business concept. Today, BTC City is a recognized shopping center in Slovenia and one of the largest shopping, entertainment, and business centers in Europe (https://www.btc-city.com/en/ljubljana/shop). Similar but smaller centers are also located in Novo Mesto and Murska Sobota.
Smart reason
Despite its focus on innovation, in 2023, BTC City still utilized a gift voucher system. However, the company aimed to revamp this system to enhance the customer experience, better leverage the potential of digital solutions, and improve operational efficiency. The digitization of the card was one of the company’s goals for 2023.
In addition to the familiar features of traditional vouchers, such as predetermined amounts and usability in only one store, the existing system required manual tracking of vouchers using tools like Excel. This led to administrative burdens and potential accounting errors, causing delays in financial transactions or requiring a significant amount of additional manual work, which meant more time or more personnel.
With the introduction of gift cards, online sales of electronic gift cards, known as e-gift cards, were also implemented. The usability of these cards extends to smartphones, either through displaying a barcode or by using Google and iOS wallets where the card can be stored.
Smart Solution
The versatile use of the voucher: SmartGifty enabled the use of vouchers in all stores within BTC City, regardless of the amount, thereby increasing flexibility for customers. Alongside the integration with the provider of various payment methods, Lab4Pay, point-of-sale (POS) terminals, or API connections directly with the merchant’s cash register are used for redemption. POS integration was chosen by BTC City; it is optional and not required to launch SmartGifty.
Automated system for efficiency: The SmartGifty platform was integrated with internal process tools, automating tracking and accounting processes. This integration helped reduce manual work and the risk of errors. It significantly simplified the accounting process, making it more accurate and time-efficient.
Results and impact: SmartGifty has played a crucial role in modernizing and automating the entire purchasing process, offering customers a modern and highly acclaimed product. Additionally, BTC City optimized its real-time management system, providing 24/7 oversight and numerous data reports to assist in future planning.
Smart Result
The SmartGifty solution has transformed BTC City’s voucher system into a more flexible, efficient, and financially beneficial model. This transition has not only enhanced the shopping experience for customers but has also streamlined business processes for merchants, effectively demonstrating the advantages of the SmartGifty system over traditional voucher systems.
Qlandia
Smart client
Qlandia is a shopping chain of 7 shopping centers across Slovenia, with a long history (the first shopping center was opened in 2006) and over 300 tenants offering everything from fashion, cosmetics, tech, gastro and much more.
Smart reason
Qlandia offered their customers paper Gift vouchers since 2014 and sought an upgrade of the product in line with modern shopping and gifting options. The clients wanted to offer their customers a product with added value like convenience and personalization, while also optimizing the management of vouchers.
Smart Solution
SmartGifty has together with the client developed a customized online solution to manage the new product – Qlandia gift card. With a web-based platform, the client was able to replace manual administrative work regarding sales, stocks, redemption while also offering the customer more freedom with gifting (online point of purchase, personalization of the card, online balance check 24/7 and more). A new gift card webshop was launched to increase brand and product awareness and to offer online purchasing for legal and natural entities in Slovenia. The Qlandia gift cards had unlimited validity, were available in several different designs and were a single load, up to the value of 300 €.
Smart Result
SmartGifty helped Qlandia to offer a contemporary, exceptionally well-accepted product to its customers while providing a client a time-optimizing management system with a real-time overview in as much detail as needed.
CUBO
Smart client
A prestigious, modern golf course in Slovenia – the star of the European Golf Champions. This fine course with a view of the Alps is well known for its balanced combination of dynamic clearings, sand traps and huge green parklands.
Smart reason
A contemporary, digital way to monitor and support golf players and provide them with a simple and user-friendly way to identify themselves and pay for the services – all with one product.
Smart Solution
A membership card that combined an identification document with a way to pay for tokens/balls and other services (food, drinks) in the club. A prepaid card that keeps the members’ credit safe and always handy.
Smart Result
Members have adopted the solution quickly and efficiently. Their card also offers them various options from monthly payments /membership to yearly with different benefits for each package. the size of the card is the same as the bank card so members can keep it close in their wallet at all times.
Supernova
Smart client
Supernova has significantly grown over 2019/2020 and is now a multinational shopping chain, present in Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Romania. It is one of the largest players in shopper real estate in Europe, combining shopping and retail centers. At the beginning of 2020, Supernova also became an owner of Qlandia shopping centers, rebranding them from Qlandia orange to Supernova red.
Smart reason
In the past, Supernova had a gift card offline system (contact chip) that was expensive, hard to manage and user-friendly. Because of their requirements, we have in 2016 provided them with a solution to change their system to an online platform SmartGifty. They have successfully used our web-based platform for several years. With an overtake of Qlandia shopping centers in 2019/2020, Supernova wanted to merge both gift cards – Qlandia gift card and the existing Supernova gift card and offer the customers an upgrade not only in size of shopping options but also in quality. It was important to extract the advantages of both products and combine them, as seamlessly as possible. Supernova is using the SmartGifty in over 25 shopping centers in Slovenia and Croatia with more locations on the way.
Smart Solution
A merge of both gift card systems (Qlandia and Supernova) in the back end and a launch of a new – mobile and user-first webshop for customers. A smart merge created a tailor-made solution for the client’s needs while managing a product (gift card) in several countries. With a 24/7, real-time, complete overview of the product in several shopping centers and markets, the client is able to plan marketing activities and optimize administration (papyrology). The product – Supernova gift card has some differences in Slovenia and Croatia (because of regulations and customer preferences) but exists in one smart, online solution that offers several admin accesses with specific log-in rights and overviews.
Smart Result
A detailed overview of sales and redemption for each market in different currencies, stock monitoring and easy managing of transactions to tenants. On the customer side – the possibility of an online exchange of Qlandia gift card for a Supernova gift card with even more shopping options and an e-gift card increased the product’s likeability and sales.
MASS
Smart client
Mass is a shoe company that has over the past 30 years grown into a company with over 400 employees. In total, Mass has more than 50 stores in Slovenia and Croatia, 8 in-house brands and more than 8,000 different models of footwear. They believe that their client comes first, which is only possible with satisfied employees, who represent the heart of the operation. This leads to mutual trust and long-term relationships with all their partners. We are very proud to be their service provider and partner in the area of gift cards.
Smart reason
Mass constantly follows shopping trends and wants to exchange its gift vouchers for modern gift cards that would connect offline stores in Slovenia and Croatia and online stores in Slovenian (www.mass.si) and Croatian (www.mass-shoes.com). They wanted to offer their customers a popular gift option that would satisfy all generations and tastes.
Smart Solution
They implemented the SmartGifty card system in all their physical stores in Slovenia and Croatia, and together with the Optiweb agency, we made sure that Mass gift cards can be easily and quickly purchased and redeemed in both online stores. Mass connected all its physical cash registers with the SmartGifty gift card issuing (selling) and redemption system, and the gift card is fully implemented in the user experience of the existing online store that runs on a Magento platform. It is possible to buy both a classic PVC card and a digital card online, which the buyer receives in his e-mail box. It can be loaded with a credit of between 10€ and 300€, rounded up to 10€. Redemption of the Mass gift card is gradual, and visitors to the online store can quickly and easily check the balance of the card (online, in real-time), regardless of where they purchased it.
Smart Result
We have enabled Mass to offer its customers a quick online purchase of a modern gift while providing easy gift card redemption in both online shops and all offline stores. We made sure that all their cash registers were fully equipped for issuing and redeeming gift cards, and at the same time, we took care of the timely printing and delivery of gift cards in Slovenia and Croatia. POS integration was chosen by Mass; it is optional and not required to launch SmartGifty.
