Plastic Haters, Meet CashStar, the fastest growing tech startup in Maine.

Portland, ME based CashStar is trying to take the “card” out of “gift card,” and has quickly become the leader in digital gifting. With more than $3 billion in gift card sales, brands are struggling to keep up with this explosive growth. Traditional gift cards provide no insight and data on the purchaser or actual purchase. CashStar is seizing this opportunity by providing a powerful platform to incentivize both retailers and customers.

The experience is beyond simple and a heck of a lot more fun than picking up any old gift card off one of those spin-ny things now at every Walgreens and CVS. As a consumer, you get to pick your design and type a personal message, plus cool new features let you upload a photo or even video and the cards can be given by email or over Facebook, bringing in an obviously cool viral element for retailers.

For recipients it’s like getting a nice written hand note vs. just a signed card out of the $0.99 section, but the real win here if for retailers.

Let’s say you buy an Outback Steakhouse gift card at Walgreens. Outback doesn’t know why you bought the card, who you’re giving it to, when they received it, or really any other details about you or the recipient other than that you purchase gifts at Walgreens and know someone who likes steak.

But with CashStar, retailers receive email addresses of both purchaser and receiver. They know what design of gift card was purchased, helping them determine what’s purchased for weddings, b-days, new homes, etc. They know when the gift card was sent, and perhaps most importantly can market to the receiver to entice them to use the card.

Cash Star CEO, David Stone, says, “Americans still love their plastic, but there’s a transition.”

CashStar has dozens of prominent retailers signed up and is eyeing a mobile strategy, where Stone sees as a “big opportunity.”

There are still a few roadblocks in digital gifting CashStar will have to overcome – or wait out while retailers move to advanced services and support digital currency. So far, retailers are only selling digital currency in their eCommerce stores and are still selling plastic gift cards in stores. There are still some retailers that don’t split tender on their sites, making any gift card a nuisance to use for online shopping (ability to purchase something and pay for it ˝ with gift card and ˝ with credit card).

Stone says he’s not worried about these issues and thinks they will change, and in the meantime he’s working to steal a big piece of the gift card pie away from the plastic lovers.

We think Stone is probably right- retailers will evolve, we won’t totally get rid of plastic, but there will be a big swing towards digital currency.

What do you think? Would you buy a digital gift card in a store or only online?