The Business of Gift Giving: Online
I am the most lazy gift giver. Don’t get me wrong, I love doing it. The appreciation from people when they get a gift is amazing, but it is hard to find the time and energy to go out and shop. Which is why I am so lucky that an entire industry has been created to cater to people like me that want to give gifts, but don’t want to get off of their couch to do it.
The business of gift giving has really taken off in the last couple of years, with new ways to send both digital and physical items more prevalent. Where you used to have to send gift cards from select retailers that would ship out an actual card via the mail, now you can send them to email addresses. Even Facebook has gotten into the game, and you can send out physical items such as flowers and candy without even knowing the giftee’s address.
New methods of gift giving like this have become a boon to the average business. You can attract not only holiday or special occasion shoppers, but impulse gift buyers, as well.
Marketing On Social Media
More people are taking part in social media shopping. So it is a great time to begin offering items that could be gifted through these available sites. Right now the heavy hitter is Facebook, where they offer gift cards, physical items and virtual gifts from various companies for a small posting fee from each business.
The other social media site offering gifts right now is Pinterest. Their version is not nearly as direct or immense, and they don’t handle the sales themselves. Instead, they allow businesses to post items on the gifts page. This includes a photo, a description, the board it was posted on and by what user, and the price. Each pin leads to a link going to the third party site for purchase. Online flower shops like Flowers24hours are one of the fastest successful adopters of Pinterest.
Both of these tools can be utilized to entice consumers. Pinterest is especially good if your demographic is female. Facebook has a wider appeal and with birthday reminders it can be very convenient.
Deal Sites
Another good tactic to use is deal sites. These are regularly updates blogs or databases that update daily on what they have in stock, or deals that have found around the web. It isn’t a major cash cow, but around the holidays it is an especially good time to start telling these sites what you will have on sale.
Offering links to your sales year round is going to catch the attention of the regular users, and there are a lot. Bargain hunters always want to be able to find a good deal for a gift.
Conclusion
Whether you are wanting to send someone a beautiful bouquet of flowers or a Kindle, the web makes it easier to do so. Businesses that want to keep up with demand need to take advantage of this fact and offer the average customer what they want and need. Which means simpler, faster ways to buy gifts online.
Do you have an idea for better marketing towards gift giving? Let us know in the comments.
