Holiday season or not, shopping for gifts can be a challenge at times. Often, it requires knowing what the recipient wants and what they’ll actually use—but that’s hard to do if you’re, for example, shopping for your child’s classmate who you’ve only met once or twice. Now, various retailers and companies are starting a new trend by creating gifting concierges, with hopes of taking all the guesswork out of the gift-giving process.
Shopafor is a new social media gifting platform that launched on December 10. Essentially, it uses AI (artificial intelligence) technology to produce gifting recommendations based on algorithms generated from data and analysis on what the recipient wants and needs. It also combines registries and reminders in one place, so you never have to rely on Facebook (or other social media) to tell you when a relative or friend’s birthday or anniversary is.
It was created by founder and CEO Chris Herbert following his daughter’s first birthday party. “After my daughter’s birthday, my wife and I were frustrated by the number of gifts that were either toys for kids 4-5 years older than her, or clothes that were for a child half her age,” he stated in a press release. “We saw it all as such a waste, and I wanted to figure out a solution to prevent it from happening again.”
Along with providing recommendations, Shopafor also allows users to update the same registry, rather than having them create one for each occasion. It also includes a social networking feature to allow friends and family to share gift ideas.
“Families today are constantly on the move and rely so much on technology to get everything done, from grocery shopping to their holiday shopping. We wanted to make the gift buying process less cumbersome for everyone,” Herbert said in the release. As it turns out there’s a market out there for gifting concierges. Another option is Little LAMMA, a text-based gifting concierge. All shoppers have to do is fill out a form on their website , detailing the recipient’s age, gender and interests, and they get a text with links to suggested gift bundles (all within your designated price point). Plus, once you make your selection, they’ll also wrap your gifts, attach a card and mail it.
Etsy even jumped on the gift concierge train back in October, when they launched a “ holiday hotline ” for people with Etsy accounts. They had certain “gifting gurus” man the phones and offer callers advice on what Etsy items they might want to purchase based on who the recipient is, some of their traits and budget. Subsequently, callers would receive an email with holiday gift ideas to buy.
Gift-giving can definitely be stressful, especially when you may be unsure of what the recipient wants. While these concierges may make it easier and relieve some of the gifting stress for the gift-giver, it’s also important for gift-recipients remember that, at the end of the day, it’s the thought and the gesture that counts.
Looking to for some last minute holiday gifts? We’ve got some ideas that can help!
