December is the biggest month of the year when it comes to gifting. As everyone races toward the end of one year to prepare for the beginning of another, there is a focus on celebrating accomplishments, sharing gratitude and sending love and support to those who are most important. Sending the perfect gift says so many things— from “Happy Holidays” and “Thank you” to “Congratulations” and “I love you.” Many people feel a lot of pressure to get gifts right, and now, technology makes choosing the perfect present every, single time, possible.

There are many different types of gifting—from corporate holiday gifts to best friend birthday gifts. Yet, within every act of giving, there are two different experiences, one for the sender and one for the recipient. Gifters, whether they are individuals or companies, want to make sure the gift they choose brings joy to the recipient. Recipients want to feel like the person who gave them a gift truly knows them enough to choose something meaningful. The great gifting challenge has always been centred on creating a seamless, delightful experience for both parties.

Nearly everyone has given or received a gift at some point in their lives, and yet, the process is riddled with inefficiencies, guesswork and friction points. What should you buy? What size should you get? What if they don’t like it? How should you react when you receive something you already have? Can you return it?

According to "The 2022 Holiday Gift Returns Survey, conducted for Phelps United Research”, 30% of gifts given are returned. According to estimates, during the holidays alone, $100 billion worth of goods are returned, which also has a major environmental impact.

The gifting process is divided into two methods: first, the corporate gifting experience which is specific for large-scale needs (such as welcoming new employees, celebrating achievements and more). Second, the personal gifting experience is specifically designed for individual gifting.

On the technology front, the personal gifting experience should be quick and intuitive, so companies need to leverage many new insights and technological advances. This includes building a front end using next.js frameworks to offer a smooth UI/UX that is fast-loading and mobile-optimized.

In addition to regular consumer research sessions to better understand customer needs, we recommend leveraging data insights to understand how people are navigating through your company experience, paying special attention to what can be done to make it more seamless.

For example, in our company, we developed a new team to work on the personal gifting platform. The global team is made up of members with diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives, which is essential in helping them develop a fresh perspective on the market and target audience.

Learning from past experiences, embracing the latest technological advancements, developing a strong team operating cadence, and most importantly, continually stoking a passion to create the most joyful gifting experiences for the gift givers and recipients can help anyone who wants to achieve so much for his company in a relatively short time, as it did for Snappy. It is a thrill to be able to take the guesswork out of gifting for so many people this holiday season as they shop for the most important people in their lives.

Written by Ruth Wang, Consumer General Manager at Snappy