Now that the pandemic has been around for a couple of years, work environments have shifted drastically; naturally, the whole gift experience and the way we interact with each other on a business level has also shifted drastically.

Gifting-as-a-service is here to stay. 

It can truly take any business to the next level as it helps create a favorable impression on the recipient and helps develop a long-term business connection with them. 

In addition, it aids in attracting customers and consumers while also retaining staff and partners.

We’ve created this post to help you understand more about gifting as a service, how it works, as well as where the process is heading.

Let’s get into it!

Table of Contents

Gifting-as-a-Service 101: What it is, How it Works & Why it Matters

Where is Gifting-as-a-Service Headed?

How to Do Gifting-as-a-Service Right

Gifting-as-a-Service 101: What it is, How it Works & Why it Matters

Gifting-as-a-service is a straightforward approach. 

Instead of delivering a tangible gift to a prospect, employee, or business client, a corporation can choose a gift provided by a gift-sending platform.

The process runs smoothly as gift-sending platforms handle everything from packing, shipping, and delivery.

In addition, these platforms help you provide a redeemable code for the required gifts, so the employee or client doesn’t pay for anything while checking out.

What makes the experience even better is that, depending on your chosen platform, the gift recipient can select the required item or exchange it for another when needed.

Once the recipient has made their pick, the item is mailed straight to the location they have already provided on the platform.

Why Gifting-as-a-Service Matters

Gifting-as-a-service is quite essential.

First, sending direct mail, running giveaways, and creating branded swag for marketing purposes has been around for a long time, whether to increase brand awareness or reinforce the business identity. 

Yet, to boost brand awareness and make your business brand stand out more, you must move beyond relying solely on a single direct mail send, utilizing a corporate gifting platform alone, or merely sending promotional items. 

When you start implementing gifting-as-a-service, you will be able to achieve a great degree of individualization. 

As a result, you’ll be more likely to be distinct in the minds of potential clients and prospects.

That’s why sending platforms have grown in popularity in recent years. 

How Personalized Gifts Can Enhance the Gifting Experience

Choosing business gifts is a time-consuming task; it takes several rounds of discussions to settle on the items. 

However, by allowing your staff to choose their presents, you will save substantial time that might otherwise be spent on more productive tasks.

According to a recent survey, 56% of workers were dissatisfied with the gifts they received. They believed that the presents did not adequately represent their commitment to the organization.

Companies can spend hours creating ideas for presents for their workers, then several hours choosing suppliers and shipping the gifts. 

They also wind up squandering a lot of time and money in the process.

 However, the outcome may not be as good as expected. 

In addition, according to a related conducted study, 68% of employees would like to pick their gifts if given a choice.

On the other hand, companies often take the easy route and provide a gift card instead.

This technique seems to be an ideal short-cut option, yet it has certain drawbacks.

Gift cards are like placing a price tag on anything; it’s the same as judging their worth based on the quantity of cash on the card.

Reinventing Corporate Gifting

The modern world requires modern solutions, hence, reinventing corporate gifting to match our current workspaces matters.

To illustrate, employees and clients should feel more connected to their gifts. For instance, mental health and wellness have been on the rise more than ever. It would be more mindful to give out related gifts and focus on what’s going on in the world.

Another example would be sustainability. Trust me when I say that eco-friendly gift choices matter. 

They help spread the right message and resonate with all clients and employees, especially if you’re looking forward to building better partner relationships with the right conscious.

The below image is an example of a great eco-friendly gift. Eco-friendly bags are tougher and endure longer than traditional plastic bags. 

They’re also considerably easier to handle than ordinary bags.

Hence, you can carry more while putting less strain on your hands and body, while also being sustainable.

As many as 56% of global businesses are remote or hybrid now, hence sending personalized gifts to remote workers matters more than ever as remote employees don’t have the same levels of connection and communication as on-site employees do.

Let’s keep going.

Where is Gifting-as-a-Service Heading?

As we mentioned in the hybrid-remote work model above, this is where gifting-as-a-service platforms are currently focusing their attention on.

Delivering gifts to remote workers boosts their engagement and feelings of belonging to the team, no matter where they are.

According to Gallup, engaged employees have 17% higher productivity, 40% less work quality defects, and 41% lower absenteeism than other less engaged employees. This all boils to one cold, hard fact: enhancing employee’s engagement matters.

In addition, remote workers can’t participate in professional bonding activities, so they often feel alienated and isolated from the rest of the team.

As a result, efforts must be demonstrated to them that they are a valuable member of the team.

On the other hand, gifting services are heading to concentrate on global issues and topics.

As we mentioned, from sustainability to mental health, it is beyond emphatic that gifting services will try their best to keep up since it’s a global message now; no longer is it a customized pen or forgettable gift.

How to Do Gifting-as-a-Service Right 

This step is critical. You have to be mindful of your choice to achieve your desired results. 

1. Choose an Online Gift Delivery Service

When deciding on the best service for your company, it’s essential to grasp the full capabilities of an autonomous sending platform and how those abilities fit into your distribution requirements and campaign goals.

With an ever-expanding field of providers, doing due diligence using the best practices outlined below will help you pick a provider that can deliver the correct range of capabilities while protecting your investment value.

Some aspects to look for while assessing suppliers include:

• Applications for corporate gifts

Understanding the service’s popular uses and anticipated results are an extraordinary approach to see how your firm can benefit. 

Hence, case studies are a fantastic method to better understand the possible effect of the sending platform, so seek a solution that includes this helpful information.

• Capabilities for warehouse fulfillment

One of the challenges of manual mailing is the need to keep all of your swag and merchandise in-house.

Hence, a platform with warehouse and offshore fulfillment capabilities solves this problem by freeing up office space and handing the packaging and tracking to a skilled team of fulfillment professionals.

Moreover, the top systems may also provide customization choices such as handwritten messages and personal touches like branded wrapping and high-quality fabrics.

• Sending choices

Sending choices are another component of the service value proposition, and there are many possibilities.

You can look for a platform that allows you to choose from various alternatives like food delights, spirits, virtual gifts, experience tickets, and physical presents.

Since not every platform accepts every type of gift, be sure to choose a platform that allows you as much flexibility as possible.

• Business objectives

Finally, consider your company objectives before engaging with any sending platform or automating provider. 

We recommend you make sure that the goals you set for automation are seen. 

Furthermore, your sending service should be able to match with your short- and long-term objectives on most, if not all fronts, and adapt with your company as it evolves.

Let’s see what’s next.

2. Use SwagDrop’s Pop-up Shop tool

A great way to make the most of gifting-as-a-service is to use an online gift delivery platform in the best shape, like our Pop-up Shop tool.

Let’s explore that option together. 

Pop-Up Shops allow you to gather and mix orders from various customers quickly, and since you pre-approve the items – including the artwork and retail price – they are always on-brand.

You can use our SwagDrop Pop-up Shop tool if you’re a company looking to share internal swag with employees and clients.

In fact, you can make your own swag Pop-Up Shop by following the steps below..

From the menu on the right side of your screen, choose the POP-UP SHOPS page.

Then, scroll down the page to learn about the many shops we have.

Choose from the following:

You can select the Pop-up Shop choice, which will lead you to a Commonsku-powered sample store.

Check the below screenshots to see what this looks like:

This sample shop looks like an eCommerce store and contains numerous branded items to indicate how your swag pop-up might look.

If you want to see how the shop will appear for your workers and guests, you can also see a more client-friendly edition of the example store in the below image:

Let’s wrap up.

Now Over to You

Now that you have a complete understanding of gifting-as-a-service and how the process goes, we hope you’re excited to start using this knowledge soon.

If you need any further advice about creating long-term relationships with clients or if you need any help choosing corporate gifts, don’t hesitate to contact us. 

We’re always beyond thrilled to receive your messages.

Thank you for reading!

Featured image by Ekaterina Shevchenko on Unsplash.