5 platforms enabling you to save more while you engross in your festive shopping

As the festive season is at its peak, everyone is busy shopping for Diwali and ticking off the things from their wish list. Gifting beloved ones in this festive occasion is one among the traditions followed by Indians over the years. While it is the most exciting period for the individuals to enjoy with their family and friends, It is also the golden period for retailers in the country. The industry estimates suggest that festive sales account for around 20-30 per cent of annual revenue for apparel and lifestyle brands. Indeed, traders shower their consumers with discounts, cashbacks and reward points both offline and online to attract maximum sales.

While this is great for businesses, this time of the year is the costliest time for shoppers. To overcome the consequences like unusually high credit card balances, tighter finances and the added stress over the money spent so that you can save more as you indulge in festive shopping and do not face an after-festival cash crunch, you can use below-listed platforms that ensure that you make the most of your money.

1. TWID: A SaaS-based Fintech startup or a millennials payment app that aggregates & join multiple loyalty/ reward points enabling an individual to use them to pay at offline and online stores. These rewards get accumulated into the account of a user but are usually unnoticed by them and there’s hardly any meaningful option to spend on. Inspired by this realization, Twid was established as a mobile-first global platform that facilitates the consumers to utilize these accumulated reward points by making payments at the leading online & offline platforms. The app (currently available on Google Play) has deep integrated partnerships with banks, retailers, dining, travel, online platforms and much more. It allows the user to keep track of all their loyalty memberships, total accumulated points, their worth, expiry date, transaction history, etc.

2. GyFTR: Bootstrapped company GyFTR is a subsidiary of Vouchgram India and was founded by Arvind Prabhakar in April 2012. It is an online-to-offline commerce solution facilitating peer-to-peer gifting across multiple geographies. GyFTR facilitates gifting by allowing users to buy gift vouchers online that can be delivered to the recipient via SMS, e-mails, and even physically. It provides deals on food, travel, magazine subscriptions and fashion.

3. Pennyful: Founded by Ravitej Yadalam, Pennyful was first started in the US with the idea of giving away real cash on customer purchases. After having partnered with 2,500 companies in the US market, Ravitej launched Pennyful in India in November 2011. The company has partnered with more than 500 merchants, including Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon, Alibaba, Jabong and Fabfurnish. Besides cashback, it claims to provide customers with instant discounts while shopping online. Pennyful launched its price comparison and product discovery tool for Amazon, Snapdeal and Flipkart in January 2015.

4. CouponDunia: Times Internet-backed CouponDunia was founded by Sameer Parwani in 2010. This Mumbai-based company lists more than 2,000 online brands including the top e-commerce players like Flipkart, Amazon, PayTM, MakeMyTrip and BookMyShow. It claims to have 7.5 million email subscribers and more than 2 million app downloads. Customers also receive cashback when they shop through their website, a service they launched in 2016. In 2015, they also forayed into brick-and-mortar retail. CouponDunia tied up with over 200 brands, including Marks & Spencers, Skechers, Calvin Klein and Arrow.