Xmas Gift Voucher You Don't Want? Zeek Launches in UK to Stop Cash Becoming Trash

LONDON, December 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Boxing Day isn't typically a day to announce your UK launch, but for Zeek, it's the busiest day of the year. One of Israel's hottest startup companies, Zeek allows customers to buy and sell unwanted gift vouchers for cash through a mobile app.

Using Zeek is simple. You simply download the free app from the App Store or Google Play, upload your unwanted gift voucher, set the price you'd be willing to accept and wait for a buyer. Zeek will send cash directly to sellers and vouchers to buyers, so everyone can get on with the purchases they'd prefer to make, with either the cash they wanted, or a bonus on their voucher.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqMZLPR94Bc

We've all been there - opening a Christmas or birthday card only to find a voucher we'd never use from a shop we'd never visit. That was Zeek co-founder Itay Erel's experience. A $1000 gift voucher received for his wedding spent a year in his wallet, before becoming a worthless piece of paper twelve months later when it expired.

Erel's research revealed that around 30% of the world's vouchers go unused each year, amounting to around £65b worth of store credit ending up in the bin. Along with co-founder Daniel Zelkind, Ziv Isaiah and Chairman Uri Levin, the founder of $1.3b global mapping sensation Waze, Erel founded Zeek, a gift voucher marketplace that has grown to 70,000 users in only 10 months, saving over $200k.

Today marks the opening of Zeek's UK marketplace, the first outside of Israel, available from today on iPhone and Android, in time for those unwanted Christmas gift cards. And with the UK Gift Card and Voucher Association valuing the market at £5b per year, with £300m going unused and the majority of vouchers being purchased between the 22nd and 25th December, both buyers and sellers will be able to find the vouchers or freed-up cash they'd prefer.

Zeek's research into the UK gift voucher market shows most people receive 1-5 gift cards per year, yet 47% of those people leave them to expire or lose them, resulting in over £1bn of wasted money. The average gift voucher/store credit sold through the platform is $50 at face value with a discount of 19%.

UK MARKET RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: 

• 47% of the UK populations have had a gift voucher that has expired.
• 51% of men and 47% of women admit to having lost a gift voucher.
• London and Yorkshire residents are most likely to buy gift vouchers, unlike residents from Wales and the East of England.
• 80% of populations receive at least one voucher per year, with 22% receiving more than six vouchers a year.
• 46% of all gift cards are sold between October and December, with 22% sold in December alone, with top retailers including John Lewis, M&S, Primark, Argos and Boots.

Zeek co-founder & CEO, Daniel Zelkind said: "We're delighted to be bringing Zeek to the UK in time for Boxing Day. British people love online shopping, but love a bargain even more. Nobody likes to be told where they have to shop, so if you'd rather have cash, or get some free credit at a store you know you love, Zeek's the app to reduce the cash that turns to trash."

For more details about  Zeek, contact:
Itay Erel
Itay@zeek.me
+972-523681777

Daniel Zelkind:
Daniel@zeek.me
+44-20-8144-4759