CashStar, the interactive gift card and incentives company, today announced that it has been selected by Dippin’ Dots, Inc., which is known best for its famous beaded ice cream. With CashStar’s technology, Dippin’ Dots will provide consumers with an alternative to plastic cards. Beginning this summer, ice cream lovers everywhere can order Dippin’ Dots gift cards online to be sent to recipients via e-mail.

As the makers of the original beaded ice cream, Dippin’ Dots is known for being on the cutting edge of innovation. Its virtual gift card program makes Dippin’ Dots the first national ice cream franchise to implement a completely Web-based gift card offering. The virtual gift cards will be available on the company’s website (www.dippindots.com) and can be purchased the same way plastic gift cards are ordered; only the virtual gift card can be personalized with different images and text and is delivered via an e-mail with a link to activate the gift. Recipients can redeem the virtual gift card at participating Dippin’ Dots locations nationwide.

“Dippin Dots is excited to be using CashStar to further promote the Dippin’ Dots brand to our customers,” says Anthony George, local area marketing manager at Dippin’ Dots. “We are looking forward to growing our brand by using the online gift cards Cashstar offers and also plan to utilize the company’s online marketing features sometime in the near future.”

CashStar will be responsible for the franchise’s gift card-related offers and incentives and will provide analysis on sales and behavior. CashStar co-founder and CEO David Stone explains, “By leveraging our patent pending offer management platform, Dippin’ Dots can now deliver personalized incentives and coupons in conjunction with their gift cards or as standalone incentives to drive sales. Most importantly, they can track the online to in-store results to tailor future programs. Motivating online-to-offline purchases and tracking the results is the holy grail of multichannel retailing.”