Get Ready for Gifting

Gifting is on the rise. Here’s how to make it work for you

It’s often been said that it’s better to give than to receive. While I personally disagree with that sentiment, it seems that I may be in the minority, because gift giving, (or “gifting” as it’s coming to be called) appears to be on the rise in America.

According to etailing.com’s 8th Annual Merchant Survey, merchants reported that gift giving is an increasing share of their business. The study showed that 38% of merchants surveyed reported that gifting (versus personal shopping) was responsible for 30% or more of their business, versus 32% in 2008. Additionally, etailing.com found similar results after mystery shopping 100 sites over the 2008 holiday period. They noted that gifting tactics are well entrenched across the merchant landscape, which seems to indicate that these tactics work—and work well.

Since more people are giving gifts, you should advantage of that in any way possible by offering gift services on your site. Offering things like gift wrapping, gift cards and optional messages for recipients could turn the heads of those shopping for family and friends. Anyone can have something shipped, but if that something is wrapped and personalized with a note, it could make all the difference in the world. If you do offer these services, let shoppers know about it in your ads.

It’s not all about what happens when customers check out—it’s also about increasing gift awareness during their entire visit to your site. Reminding customers of potential gift options as they shop is a great way to give them ideas about what to buy and more importantly, convinces them your site is the place to buy it.

Things like gift suggestion options on site pages, as well as product ratings and reviews, may help sway customers who are considering gift giving. Allowing customers to access “wish lists” where items can be stored for later purchase, as well as address books where customers can manage their list of recipients is also something to consider. Additionally, offering volume discounts to corporate gift givers and other shoppers who may buy multiple gifts is also something to think about.

Whatever you can do to make gifting easier for your customers is something that may cause those customers to actually give those gifts and, just as importantly, to come back when they need to send more.

As the recession wraps up, chances are strong that we’ll see an even larger increase in gifting among shoppers. If this is the case, it will be more important than ever to ready for those gift givers, so give some thought to what you can do prep your site for their arrival. After all, it’s not only their friends and family who’ll be receiving gifts—but some lucky merchants as well.

— Noah Belson, Content Quality Editor