Brands
Qwikcilver drives 80% repeat transactions on Woohoo with CleverTap
MUMBAI: CleverTap, the customer lifecycle management platform, has announced that Qwikcilver, the gift card technology leader, has been able to drive repeat transaction on its B2C platforms www.woohoo.in and Woohoo Gifting App with over three-quarters of its customer base on the back of effective omnichannel marketing campaigns.
Founded in 2006, Qwikcilver is the single largest end-to-end service provider in the pre-paid, gift card space, serving some of the biggest names in retail and service industries in India, the Middle East, South East Asia, and more. It powers 9 out of every 10 gift cards and e gift cards sold in these regions and manages an annualized gross transaction value of $1.5 billion.
Qwikcilver co-founder and director Pratap TP said, “At Qwikcilver, we have always been able to keep our operations frugal, but continue to build high-quality technolog.”
He further added, “To that end, CleverTap’s customer lifecycle management suite helps us measure the real impact of our marketing spend and build a strong customer base without spending too much on customer acquisition. With CleverTap, we’ve been able to see as many as 80 per cent customers performing repeat transactions on www.woohoo.in & Woohoo Gifting App through targeted and personalized engagement campaigns across channels.”
CleverTap’s recently launched measurement dashboard – Real Impact, helps brands measure the long-term consolidated impact of their marketing campaigns. Using Real Impact, the Qwikcilver team will be able to attribute the ROI of its marketing spend to key business metrics such as revenue per user, conversion, user retention, stickiness, and more.
CleverTap co-founder Anand Jain stated, "We are proud to have been associated with Qwikcilver for over three years now, and are excited about their journey ahead”. He further added, “Qwikcilver has managed to achieve phenomenal growth by constantly innovating while keeping their operations lean and cost-effective. With the international market for gift and loyalty cards expected to grow to $506 billion by 2025, I am confident that our partnership will continue to yield great results.”
Brands
Estée Lauder to shed 10,000 jobs as new boss bets on digital shift
The cosmetics giant raises its profit outlook but stays silent on a possible merger with Spain’s Puig, as job cuts deepen and a three-year sales slump weighs on the turnaround
NEW YORK: Stéphane de La Faverie is not done cutting. Estée Lauder announced on Friday that it plans to eliminate as many as 3,000 additional jobs, taking its total redundancy programme to as many as 10,000 roles, up from a previous target of 7,000 announced a year ago. The company, which owns La Mer, The Ordinary, Tom Ford, and Aveda, employs roughly 57,000 people worldwide. The mathematics of what is now being contemplated is stark.
The fresh round of cuts is expected to generate a further $200 million in savings, bringing the total annual savings from the programme to as much as $1.2 billion before taxes. That money, De La Faverie has made clear, will be ploughed back into the turnaround.
A CEO in a hurry
De La Faverie, who took the helm in January 2025, inherited a company that had endured three consecutive years of annual sales declines. His response has been to move fast and cut deep. A significant portion of the latest redundancies reflects his push to reduce headcount at US department stores, long a cornerstone of Estée Lauder’s distribution model but now a channel in structural decline. In their place, he is accelerating the shift toward faster-growing online platforms, including Amazon.com and TikTok Shop, a pivot that is reshaping not just where Estée Lauder sells but how it thinks about its customers.
The numbers are moving in the right direction
Despite the pain, there are signs the medicine is working. Estée Lauder raised its profit outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, guiding for adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.35 to $2.45, above analyst estimates and a notable step up from the $2.05 to $2.25 range it had guided for in February. Organic net sales growth is expected to come in at 3 per cent, the company said, at the high end of the range it set out in February.
The share price tells a mixed story. After De La Faverie took charge, the stock surged nearly 60 per cent, buoyed by investor optimism that a longtime company insider could finally arrest the decline. But 2026 has been rougher: the shares have fallen 27 per cent this year, weighed down by disappointing February results and the overhang of unresolved merger talks with Spanish beauty giant Puig Brands SA. The company gave no additional details about those discussions on Friday, leaving the market to guess.
Silence on Puig
The proposed tie-up with Puig remains the most consequential unknown hanging over Estée Lauder. A deal with the Barcelona-based group, which owns brands including Carolina Herrera and Rabanne, would reshape the global luxury beauty landscape. But with nothing new to say and a turnaround still very much in progress, De La Faverie is asking investors to trust the process.
Three years of sales declines, 10,000 job cuts, and a merger that may or may not happen. At Estée Lauder, the overhaul has barely started.
