Gifting has always been a challenge

eCommerce has given every business idea a chance to make it big in the world of retail. Expressing feelings by gifting is what Giftingnation is all about. In a candid conversation with Retailer Media, Founder of Giftingnation.com, Swetha Mothey, shared views about the brand and concept.

 

Gifting industry has some established players in India, what inspired you to venture in the segment?

Gifting has always been a challenge for most of us, be it for friends, family, fiancée, husband or kids. Did we ever truly cherish what we receive as gifts? With increasing number of nuclear families and a tech savvy fast paced lifestyle, we tend to forget important occasions and more importantly, to tell the loved ones how much we care. Gifting is essentially an easy way to say-'I Care' and that is our primary inspiration, to be able to facilitate an emotional message.People connect and share their happenings, pictures and emotions through social network but giving makes it more meaningful and strengthens bonds. GIVING is something beyond all of this!Our vision is to create a destination for people to buy products that help them to express emotions and make a meaningful connect.

 

How do you retail your brand?

Word of mouth has been a primary driver for our growth and repeat users helped increase the new user base. Social Network, direct marketing and search engine optimisation have been key online marketing channels for us. Our search engine optimisation efforts bring in increased organic traffic to our website. Other than this, targeted community-based marketing programmes like reaching out to residences, participating in specific events and corporate gifting ability helped us spread the word. Cross promotion with our vendors drive traffic to our website. Tactical campaigns like Couponing to customers, exclusive launches, and pre-orders drive high ticket size purchases.

 

You are planning to launch your app, so do you think eCommerce model isn't enough to reach out prospective consumers?

There are more than 100mn+ who use phone to browse the Internet today. That's a great target for us to start with. Until now, gifting has been primarily driven through offline and retail hence, players like Archies and Ferns n Petals are still big in the segment. We are going with a 2-pronged approach. While we continue to reach out to online shoppers, Giftingnation will also tap the offline consumers who are on Justdial or local search engines and direct them to Giftingnation.com to buy products. Most of the B2B corporate gifting still happens through exhibitions, events and online sites.

 

What are your differentiation strategies?

a.    Easy and quick discovery of gifts on Internet, phone or mobile.

b.    Unique and wide range of products at various price

c.    Personalisation options to make the gift more thoughtful and special

d.    Deliver the gift on a date and time across India faster. Offer Bespoke gifting options

e.    Our mobile app will enable people to gift within few minutes-instantly.

 

How do you retain your consumers? And how do you compete with other existing brands in the segment?

Shopping is impulsive. Gifting is emotional and more thoughtful. Over the last 2 years, we observed that consumers spend more when it comes to gifting and very less often when they look at discounting. Some steps Giftingnation has taken to compete and create a space for themselves are through:

a. Uniqueness of gifts

b. Able to deliver it on the date & time

c. Making the gift personalised (wrapping, messages)

d. One-one customer service to make the experience amazing

 

What are your price points?    

Our gifts start from Rs.50 to Rs.100,000 depending on the product.

 

Do you have expansion plans? If yes, then through which medium it would be?

We would like to set up our marketing and operation offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, and Chennai in the next 6-8 months. Giftingnation will reach more Internet and mobile users by partnering with banks to reach their customers, through community marketing programmes, and tie-up with bloggers to write content that will help establish that Giftingnation is a gift expert. From a 15 people team, we are planning to ramp up to 50 people this year with special focus to bring in experienced senior management people in the areas of marketing, technology and product.

 

What according to you would be the future of the booming eCommerce industry?

eCommerce industry is to set to grow from $15bn to $25bn in the next 2 years. Online shoppers will grow from 20mn to 100mn+ in next 2-3 years. Payments will become cashless and safer. From large horizontals like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal, we will see specialised eCommerce ventures which will become big in sectors like gifting, furniture, clothing, toys, babies, education etc. Technology will enable people to shop on devices like phone, wearable tech like watches, and delivery of products reaching out to interior Tier III cities faster.