Candystick the solution for collecting gift monies

From birthdays, weddings and office farewells, to anniversaries, stag nights and bar mitzvahs - Candystick takes over and manages the process for you. If its European counterparts are anything to go by, Candystick is tipped to spark a new culture in South Africa by improving and enhancing the whole experience of giving and receiving presents.

Candystick brings people together to give something special and makes everyone - the givers and the receiver - feel good about the process. Imagine a colleague's big birthday at the office and it's fallen on you to collect the gift money. Round goes the secret envelope and round you go chasing colleagues to make sure everyone has signed the card and donated some money - and it's up to you to ensure you collect enough money to get something in time. And then you might buy them something they don't even want.

One collection pot

Imagine instead that you now take four simple steps online and it's all done for you. Your colleagues will like it too because they get a chance to purchase what they actually want. And when it comes to family and friends, wouldn't it be so much nicer to have one collection pot - a Candybox - so that everyone contributes to buying a more luxurious and appropriate present, one that will be really appreciated by the recipient.

Easy to use

Four steps is all it takes on Candystick:

1. Create your Candybox, which is your virtual money collection box.
   
2. Invite people to contribute.
   
3. Recipient gets the Candybox.
   
4. Recipient spends the money.
   

No charge

Candystick does not charge for creating a Candybox. Following collection from identified contributors, you can either give the full amount of cash collected to the recipient, buy a gift at one of the partner stores, or, for a small transaction fee, ask for a bank transfer.

The Candystick website is very easy to use and flexible and includes some useful features to steer you through the process.

For example, automatic reminders are sent to contributors and 'thank you' notes from the Candybox recipient once the gift maturity date has been reached. There is also an 'opt out' option for anyone not wishing to join the group. The Candybox collection can be linked to Facebook and new friends or contributors can be invited in at any time during the collection.

During the collection process, the Candybox is private and is protected in a bank's safe deposit account until its maturity date. There is a ceiling of R10,000 and no less than R50 that can be paid by a single 'contributor' and the amount that people give is confidential and not visible to the rest of the group.

For more, go to www.candystick.co.za