Giftex Good News – The Evolving Gifting Industry in the Challenging Times

In the time of crisis can you imagine Gifting in a whole unique form?  

The gifting industry in India, which grows approx. 200% every year is expected to touch USD 84 billion by 2024 from USD 65 million. Amidst the lockdown and ongoing pandemic that has created waves of economic challenges, the relevance of gifting, which was considered a luxury expense is now surprisingly evolving and redefining its relevance itself in innovative ways which may change how gifts would be perused!

Innovative Gifting experiments in the lockdown

 In a recent article published in The New Indian Express, Pawan Gadia, CEO of Ferns N Petals, India’s leading Gifts and Flower retailer brand shared a unique insight about their new experiment in the gifting sector. In a statement, Mr. Gadia said, “Since we can’t deliver anything in physical form, one of our team members, Surender Singh, came up with this idea of Guitarist on Video Call. If a person X wants to send some love to a friend Y as a musical gesture, they can place an order on the site by selecting a bouquet of songs or the mood of songs. After the order is placed, the guitarist contacts the sender and takes down the list of songs to be played via WhatsApp video conference call with the sender and recipient. The guitarist will play the songs for 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the option chosen by the sender. It’s a gift that brings a smile on everyone’s face. It is a great way to cheer up and gift happiness to your loved ones even when they are miles apart.

Mr. Pawan Gadia (CEO- Fern and Petels)

Analyzing the impact of this unique experiment, Mr. Gadia added that, “When we saw this idea working, we moved on to the second one, Personalized Video Message. The sender has to add images, and a personalised heartfelt message in the text box and then FNP’s guitarist will record that message and club it together with the song and images to create a beautiful personalised video with music, which will be sent to the receiver as well as the sender.  The third option is e-greeting – a digital card with a photograph and your voice message accompanied by music. This is similar to the video message. The fourth one is Personalised e-books that comprise storybooks, romance books, and books for kids. Here, a child becomes a character from the book, such as Aladdin, Cinderella and Snow White. Then, there are Personalised Caricatures and Posters to wish dear ones on their birthday or any special day.  They have even tried to include professional instrument players. For instance, if someone likes qawwali, or saxophone, or guitar tunes, you can gift them a 15-minute session. The artiste will call the person and play the instrument”. 

The first four digital gifts – guitarist on call, video message, e-books, and e-greetings is getting good traction from the customers. 

Growing online customer traction

Currently, online platforms are boosting the country’s gifting market. Though it would be obvious to expect an increasing number of consumers opting for online gifting during the lockdown, the evolution of gifting ways and forms is more exciting. Increasing digitalization and the adoption of technologies are significantly driving the gifting market in India.

 To boost customer confidence personalization and customization of gift products with creative packaging, personalized notes, initial engraved boxes, etc., always played a crucial role in customer engagement.  In the same way, personalisation of E-Gifting is gaining significant traction in the new normal phase. 

 The gifting industry has always played a vital role as a mediator helping bridge the relationship between clients and customers in both good and bad times. This time, it seems to be playing the same role but in a more unique and experiential form!