The virus has played a celebration pooper for a lot of celebrations this year. Gifting, which is an integral component of any celebration, has also been impacted by the pandemic. But now, with the wedding season upon us and Christmas and New Year on the horizon, men and women are turning inventive and acquiring new and revolutionary techniques to surprise their good friends and loved ones. Enter digital gifting. Instead of in-individual presents, men and women currently are preferring on the internet gifting, which has develop into a hot new trend in the post-Covid era.
The selections variety from subscriptions of numerous OTT platforms to e-books, individual radio speak shows, digital caricatures and so on. Increased activity on social media is also assisting service providers gauge the requires of the millennial customer. Flower and present retailer Ferns N Petals, which operates in 400 cities and towns across India and 120 nations worldwide, for instance, has quite a few digital gifting selections, like hiring a guitarist on video get in touch with, personalised video messages and e-books, and so forth. “Since we can’t deliver anything in physical form, we came up with the idea of ‘Guitarist on Video Call’. If a person wants to send love to a friend 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. He/she then plays the songs for 10-30 minutes, depending on the option chosen by the sender,” explains Pawan Gadia, CEO, retail & on the internet, India, UAE & Singapore, Ferns N Petals.
Another floral boutique Fiorella provides virtual flowers at minimal costs for shoppers to support them connect with loved ones and make occasions like birthdays and anniversaries unique.
Then there is Frinza, a swiftly-developing on the internet gifting business, which offers a variety of premium and higher-high-quality gifts. While Covid could possibly have restricted physical interactions, Frinza’s digital gifting options have come to the rescue. Its catalogue consists of e-greeting cards, Kindle books, customised wishes, personalised poems, on the internet performances by favourite celebrities, amongst other folks. “We were always prepared for change and, hence, we diversified our product portfolio to adapt to life after Covid-19,” says Truptimayee Lenka, co-founder and COO, Frinza. The most prevalent way to send a digital surprise, even so, remains the e-greeting, a digital card with the sender’s photograph and voice message accompanied with music.
Various e-gifting platforms also let their partners, like airlines and banks, to boost their customers’ expertise by supplying them loyalty points and e-present voucher redemption offers. GyFTR.com, for instance, provides digital present vouchers of more than 150 brands to facilitate immediate gifting and redemption across categories such as apparel, accessories, meals, mobile, electronics, jewellery, and so forth. E-present vouchers have, in reality, turned out to be quite hassle-free and well-liked. Customers can opt for amongst numerous costs and design and style templates for their cards.
Online platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime, also, present gifting plans on yearly subscriptions. The most recent estimates predict that the marketplace for digital gifting options is registering a 3-fold raise annually and will raise to $4 billion by 2024. Flowers, cakes and sweets have been replaced by a developing demand for revolutionary selections such as coupons, cashbacks, discounts and vouchers.
Much like other corporations, the gifting landscape is moving away from the standard route to adapt to the new way of life post the Covid-19 pandemic. As extra and extra corporations turn to tech, going digital is probably the only way to survive.