OUTSOURCING VS IN-HOUSE

While organisations are using corporate gifting in more sophisticated and creative ways, such as expanding gifting occasions beyond the holidays, they are still facing challenges with the types of gifts they can give. “This can be attributed to the lack of flexibility and scalability of their existing gifting programs,” Manik Bhatia, Senior Analyst at Coresight, tells Business Chief.

Manik says nearly half (48%) of those surveyed manage end-to-end corporate gifting internally without a gifting platform — and that this group is relatively more challenged versus those outsourcing corporate gifting either partially or fully. Among the issues they find very challenging are the inability to purchase gifts from multiple brands/retailers (33%), limited choice attributes (32%), managing gift inventory, storage and shipping (30%), and limited range of products (28%). seconds via email or text. Recipients receive a customised gift notification, including a video, and can modify or exchange the gift on their device before it ships. Steven says this helps eliminate the need to gather shipping information in advance while ensuring a satisfied recipient with a gift they truly want (and therefore probably won’t discard).

Conversely, outsourcing to a gifting provider – which 52% or organisations do, according to Coresight research – offers multiple benefits, allowing organisations “to centralise and streamline corporate gifting, to ease friction points such as inventory management and shipping, and lower gifting program costs while delivering more engaging gifting experiences”, Manik says.

Manik is predicting that as the corporate gifting market grows, more organisations will use outsourced gifting solutions and platforms.

It marks the end of ‘one size fits nobody’ gifts that no one wants or uses, he declares. “With e-gifting, there’s no need to worry about what size the person wears or what colour they prefer.”

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are being used increasingly by gifting platforms, both to automate the gifting process, and to counter the one size fits nobody gifting approach – ensuring gifts are tailored for each recipient and therefore meaningful and useful. AI-based corporate gifting platforms Alyce, EvaBot, and Giftpack