WittyGift: Trying to crack the gifting market with a themed gift box model
Friday May 31, 2013 , 2 min Read
Gifting is being touted as a huge market currently and many players are privy to this trend. As per American Express estimates, the gift market in India is more than $30 billion annually. Vying for the pie, WittyGift was started in 2009, by Samuel Ziza and Manvinder Kohli, and Justine Desraux.WittyGift is based on a concept for experiential gifting. They have a set of themes like dance, adventure, culinary and well-being that they allow you to choose from. They have a set of around 10 things under each theme that the recipient of the gift can choose from. “The idea is that the recipient feels special for the thought you put into their gift, and happy because he/she get to pick the gift themselves,” says Samuel.
The price of these boxes ranging between ₹999 to ₹2999, the intention is to offer quality experiences, good value and brands in an elegantly packaged box to provide a well rounded solution for every gifting need.
The concept of gift experience boxes has been popular in Europe since 1990, but is relatively new in the Indian markets. Experiential gifts now represent one of the fastest growing segments of the global gift industry. Presence of disposable income and lack of time in the urban populace is bound to give this more impetus. (Other Indian startups in the field include Giftology, Giveter, Giftery, etc.)
Currently logistics are managed internally for quality purpose, from call center to delivery. They plan to outsource once the volumes begin to increase.Their business model, adopted from Europe, is based on discount margin from their vendors. After one and a half year of operation, in 2012, WittyGift broke even, with 50 lacks sales and they plan on crossing one crore turnover this year.
In addition to a huge individual client base WittyGift also caters to corporate clients like Essar Oil & Gas, Viacom18, Essel Group, Ascend International School. They have secured a first round of investment in 2011 and are actively seeking the next round of investment.
