eCommAs Awards 2017 - Best B2B E-Commerce Marketplace

“Corporate gifts should no longer be limited to pens, letter openers and paper weights,” said Ray Leung, CEO of local corporate gift company GiftU. Corporate gifts were used to be something practical and economical such as note papers and pens in the past. However, in recent years, most companies tend to make a small batch of customised items as gifts.

Amid fierce competition in the gifting market, as companies provide highly similar services or products, and there is no absolute advantage among industries. While big companies are usually less price sensitive, they pay very much attention on brand value.

Leung believes that today’s gift market has changed to consultant-driven where professional consultants will curate a whole-year-round gift solution for clients, including proposals, gift design and packaging etc., in order to align the client’s overall marketing strategy. This is varied from the traditional “buy and sell” model, corporate gift companies now need to focus more on creating personalisation solutions.

GiftU leverages the new business model to initiate gift ideas that are aligned to corporate image or customer preferences. The company also provides creative gift design and planning as well as complimentary quality assurance services to ensure product safety and meet market demand.

He added that businesses need to focus on marketing and positioning. Giving gift, after all, is all about igniting their customers’ desire of having the gift to achieve marketing objectives. Therefore, it is important to create value, rather than reducing the cost by mass production.

In response to the changing customer preference for products, GiftU partners with European brand XD Design to design exquisite corporate gifts.

Meanwhile, as technology continues to change our personal and work lives, mobile-first has become the new normal. The gift industry will see a bigger change as the market requires gifts to incorporate more interactive elements to engage customers, combining technology to better understand the preferences of recipients and collect more data for future targeting marketing. This is way beyond the original value of gifts.

GiftU worked with Harbour City earlier this year on a CRM & CSR campaign which customers buy over HK$2,000 in Harbour City and redeem for the gifts provided by GiftU, and Harbour City would donate HK$100 to The Community Chest.

To ensure the redemption gift is attractive enough while maintaining the premium brand image of Harbour City, GiftU provide a high quality printed umbrella. The total redemption of the umbrella was over 12000 pcs within 3 weeks.

This successful campaign was covered in different women & fashion magazines, gained much celebrities’ support, created much noise in social media platforms, which turned out to be a really successful CRM & CSR campaign.

Extended reading: The art of corporate gift giving