If you are tired of buying the same old gifts for everyone, PRAKRITI ROY explores for you the newest trends in gifting — experiential gifting
Gifting is an ageold tradition not just in India but throughout the world. There are gifts for every occasion – be it weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, festivals, achievements and now, even for breakups. And, of course, there is the whole industry of corporate gifting.
It often happens that you spend hours in trying to pick a fitting gift for someone. But, in the end, you often end up buying flowers and chocolates, or sometimes, gadgets if the budget permits. This is not just clichéd but also unoriginal. Moreover, random gifts like showpieces and crockery are often recycled and passed on to someone else.
To get rid of the problem, gift cards were introduced. Using this, a person could buy something of their choice and something that fits (in case of clothes or shoes) instead of pretending to like a gift forced upon you. So, depending on your budget, you could buy a gift card from a certain store for a particular amount through which one could buy whatever they liked. However, even this lacks personal touch.
Since gifting is all about adding the personal touch to make your gift look more thoughtful, some aggregators have now introduced something new. The latest trend on the gifting circuit is to do away with material gifts and instead, gift experiences or sometimes, even a collection of experiences. For instance, the website Giftxoxo has a range of curated experiences that you may buy for your loved ones. In fact, the co-founder tells you that experiential gifting is also becoming popular for corporate gifting. So there is a flying experience where a person can fly a small aircraft on their own; a parachute or paragliding experience; a dining experience on a helicopter; a vineyard tour available only in a few places in Maharashtra and Karnataka; various specialised spas followed by drinks or food; and so on.
“When we started in 2012, people didn’t understand the idea of gifting experiences. But over the last two years, we’ve started getting very good response. But right now, our services are still booked mostly in the top 10 metro cities,” says Manoj Agarwal, co-founder, Giftxoxo.
The ultimate personal touch would be to gift someone something truly inspired by the kind of relationship you share with them. For an anniversary or birthday of a spouse, one can book a curated experience that would include everything from the pick-up at home, to a fancy dinner with some kind of surprise element like a personal musician, and end with the drop back home.
Another very interesting gifting option is the cold laser therapy for smokers that Giftxoxo offers. This is a consultation session using cold laser therapy to help one quit smoking. In a world that is becoming more and more health-conscious, a gift such as this would indeed be thoughtful and show that you truly care for someone.
In the health sector, there is a whole new and emerging crop of gifting options. There are the spas and massages for wellness, or dermatologist sessions for special skincare and tips.
And then there are the gym memberships as well which you could gift to someone who is already into fitness. If you have a loved one who hates gymming but still wants to or needs to get into shape, then a fitness package is what they should be gifted, such as the one being offered by Mantan Fitness. Jyotika Khajotia, fitness expert at Mantan, tells you that they have created packages for women and men separately keeping in mind their tastes and preferences. “Women like variety. So there is masala bhangra, zumba, yoga, pilates and other activities for them. Those who are gifted the membership (Rs5700 per month) always take it up because they find regular gymming boring,” she adds.