How Gifting Drives eCommerce Sales

Gift giving changed the shape of eCommerce. Once people were able to purchase and deliver gifts online without having to leave their house, the potential for sales in this area grew exponentially. In the rapidly evolving world of eCommerce, embracing these new strategies and systems is necessary in order to stay relevant. 

Gifting creates demand for consumer goods in a cyclical manner; gift givers tend to return the favor. At the same time it promotes brand awareness and customer acquisition potential. In order to capitalize on this, how can gifts be used to your advantage? Let’s take a look.

Gifting In Ecommerce

Gifting is such an important eCommerce practice because in fact one in five transactions on your eCommerce store is gift related. This is a great opportunity for your sales, and it also can have the result of bringing two people to your store afterwards. If you pair this with the social proof and social media marketing opportunities, it’s too good not to miss.

Why Gifting Drives eCommerce Sales

Personalization Capacity

Gifting works so well with eCommerce because of the emotional connection that it fosters. Connections are created between individuals based on the emotion behind gift giving. When you add personalization into the mix, this increases the effect even more. 

Customers are drawn to platforms that facilitate the opportunity for personalization. Being able to choose specific gifts based on quizzes, headings, captions and other indicators is very important in this element. 

If personalization capacities are also included in the products themselves, such as gifts or cards, then this can boost customer satisfaction even more. The more unique and tailored the process and gift, the better the outcome.

Plenty Of Opportunities

The merchandising cycle of holidays; both seasonal and personal, are one of the biggest drivers of eCommerce sales. These events always create a surge in online sales, and since birthdays continue throughout the year, there is always a demand. 

Making sure that your merchandising seasonal strategy is up to date and relevant is important here. If you have a headless system, this means that it’s easier to update your merchandising seasonally, without the need for costly and time consuming backend development.

Convenience Increase

It’s super convenient to send gifts online. If your company has invested in your gifting strategy, by making sure that packaging and gift options are available, this will boost interest. There are diverse products and strategies available to make gift giving appealing via your site.

Hampers, ‘Gifts for Him’ and ‘Gifts for Her’ are a few suggestions that will spark interest. Considering that these gifts can then be sent straight to their door without you having to do anything, it’s easy to see why it’s so important.



Versatility

There are so many types of products and services that can be offered as gifts. For this reason the flexibility is in your hands.

In terms of physical products that your store could be selling:

• Food
• Flowers/Plants
• Drinks
• Clothing
• Accessories
• Games
• Homeware
• Books

These are all examples of products that can be offered. When it comes to experiences, these also apply:

• Escape rooms
• Spa days
• Photo shoots
• Physical activities
• Tickets to events
• Informational talks

To name a few. You can already see the diversity available. As long as your strategy is good in order to help people understand that your products can be given as gifts, there is a lot of room for you to make sales here.

Global Reach

Another great thing about gift giving is the capacity to send gifts in different countries. This is more convenient than taking something to the post office to send it. This helps to raise brand awareness across the globe, and can open your business to new markets if done well. 

In order to make sure your website is up to standard globally, make sure that your translation capabilities are up to date. Making sure that currencies will come up in the appropriate countries, as well as other important information such as delivery costs to different locations, should all be considered. 

Gift Vouchers

Another reason that gifting works so well over eCommerce is that instead of having to choose people a gift that they will like, you can simply buy them a voucher and they choose the gift themselves. This means that your eCommerce business will reap the rewards, without the possibility of return or exchange due not liking the item. 

Gift cards are versatile and can be leveraged as a strategic tool to drive sales, encourage repeat business and introduce new customers.



Social Media

Lastly, social media is a reason why gifting via eCommerce works so well. The influence of social media on gift giving cannot be overlooked. Firstly stating loudly that you offer gift giving services is important. Beyond that, encouraging the receivers of the gifts to share user generated content about their new item/experience is a great way of marketing as well as promoting brand image.

Social proof is a great way to entice new customers, and offering rewards to those who share can create a win-win situation for everyone. People love to have their social media featured on big brands pages, so this is a perfect opportunity.

Overall, gift giving is a key component to many eCommerce businesses. If they can buy it online for themselves, they can buy it online for someone else.  Be creative with it! Don’t feel limited; even if your business sells kitchens, maybe someone will buy this for their friend. You just need to make the first move into letting them know that it’s possible: setting it up well, and watch the magic happen.