Every Tuesday, about 10,000 people in Charlottetown eagerly await an email from a company less than a year old that offers them a chance to claim more than 1,000 gifts from local merchants.

The company in question is GetGifted, and its simple idea of helping merchants attract new customers with gifts is creating buzz in Charlottetown and beyond. The company has launched a program in Fredericton, and is already signing up future members in Saint John, Halifax and Moncton. And next month, it will begin a test program in Cambridge, Ma., its first trial in a U.S. city.

The buzz among consumers is mirrored by the buzz in the startup community. Founder and CEO Gillian McCrae has taken the company into the Launch36 accelerator, and on Monday was one of eight companies at MentorCamp (a one-day event that brings together Atlantic Canadian startups with mentors from around the world). In both groups, experts have been impressed with the simplicity and potential of her business model.

“GetGifted is an online marketing platform that helps retailers connect with local consumers,” McCrae said in her presentation at MentorCamp.

Here’s what the company does:  It asks local retailers to volunteer selections of their wares as gifts for customers. So a restaurant might offer 30 deserts worth $10 each. Or a clothing store might put forward 50 pairs of mittens, worth $15 each. GetGifted gathers together all these gifts and then sends out an email telling its followers of all the gifts on offer.

It sends out the email at a different time each Tuesday. Once the email lands, the followers can speak for the limited number of gifts, though they can only accept one per merchant. They then have 14 days to actually go to the store or restaurant. They claim their gift by holding up the e-coupon on their smartphone to show they are a recipient. The merchants pay to subscribe and customarily end up selling the visiting customers merchandise worth several times than the price of the gift.

The most astonishing statistic produced by McCrae is that 10,000 people subscribe to the weekly gift-giveaway on P.E.I., 85 percent of them from Charlottetown. That’s almost one-quarter of Charlottetown’s population. What’s more, about 150 merchants have joined the service and they give out about 1,500 gifts each Tuesday. They are all claimed in 10 minutes, and about 60 percent of them are picked up within the two-week period.

McCrae said one reason her service has been so successful is because the consumers have to pay nothing, and the merchants find it an effective promotion. “It’s just a true gift, that’s given out in order to attract a savvy consumer,” she said.

GetGifted, which is reviewing its options in terms of raising financing, is now developing its product and is working on a smartphone app, which will allow the gifts to be claimed even more quickly. As well as the expansion in the Maritimes, McCrae is focused on her 12-week trial in Cambridge.